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COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  STUDIES  IN  ENGLISH 
AND  COMPARATIVE  LITERATURE 


AARON  HILL 

POET,  DRAMATIST,  PROJECTOR 


COLUMBIA 

UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
SALES  AGENTS 

New  York  : 
LEMCKE  &  BUECHNER 
30-32  West  27th  Street 

London  : 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

Amen  Corner,  E.C. 

Toronto : 
HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
25  Richmond  Street,  W. 


AARON  HILL 

POET,  DRAMATIST,  PROJECTOR 


BY 

DOROTHY  BREWSTER 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements 

FOR  THE  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the 

Faculty  of  Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1913 


Copyright,  1913 
By  Columbia  University  Press 


Printed  from  type  September,  1913 


Press  of 

The  New  er*  printins  cohpanv 

Lancaster,  Pa. 


This  Monograph  has  been  approved  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  English  and  Comparative  Literature  in  Columbia 
University  as  a  contribution  to  knowledge  worthy  of 

publication. 

A.  H.  THORNDIKE, 

Secretary, 


282340 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  MY  FATHER 


Vil 


PREFACE 

The  study  of  a  minor  author  entails  two  main  advan- 
tages: his  relations  with  great  contemporaries  may  throw 
light  upon  them  from  a  new  angle;  and  his  activities, 
whether  signifieant  or  not  in  their  results,  may  illustrate 
the  spirit  of  his  age,  and  enrich  the  backgrounds  of  more 
memorable  lives.  There  is  often,  too,  a  psychological  prob- 
lem of  much  interest  involved  in  a  vanished  reputation. 
Why  was  a  writer,  whose  works  our  age  declines  to  notice, 
highly  regarded  in  his  own  day?  It  is  a  problem  merely 
pushed  aside,  not  solved,  by  concluding  that  the  judgment 
of  our  ancestors  was  at  fault.  The  attempt  to  solve  it  may 
not  always  result  in  a  contribution  to  scholarship,  but  it 
may  add  a  very  little  to  our  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
and  it  sometimes  reveals  a  personality  more  interesting  and 
attractive  than  the  pages  in  which  that  personality  found 
expression. 

Aaron  Hill  is  an  author  who  offers  all  these  inducements 
to  study:  he  had  relations  more  or  less  intimate  with  a 
great  poet  and  a  great  novelist,  and  with  many  less  famous 
writers;  he  was  versatile  and  enterprising  to  such  an  un- 
usual degree  that  he  left  few  of  the  typical  pursuits  of  his 
time  untried;  and  the  prominence  of  his  name  in  his  own 
day,  compared  with  the  total  eclipse  of  it  in  ours,  provides 
us  with  the  psychological  problem.  "To  the  really  in- 
telligent men  among  his  contemporaries,"  Professor  Louns- 
bury  has  said,  "he  must  have  seemed  the  most  persistent 
and  colossal  bore  of  the  century. '  '^     To  disinter  an  extinct 

1  Thomas  E.  Lounsbury,  STiakespeare  and  Voltaire,  87.  ' '  It  was  to 
posterity,"  Professor  Lounsbury  says  of  Hill  in  another  place  (page 
151),  "that  he  looked  for  recognition,  forgetting  that  posterity  must 


X  PREFACE 

bore  of  the  past  would  be  a  work  not  so  much  of  pious  as 
of  impious  pedantry — a  criminal  attempt  to  increase  the 
present  sum  of  boredom.  But  it  is  curious  that  men, 
usually  considered  to  have  been  really  intelligent,  expressed 
opinions  the  reverse  of  that  which  Professor  Lounsbury 
supposes  them  to  have  entertained.  By  some  of  them  Hill 
was  called  a  genius,  by  many  a  man  of  unusual  ability; 
and  almost  invariably  he  was  spoken  of  with  great  respect. 
Were  all  these  men  either  deliberately  insincere,  or  stupidly 
mistaken  ? 

This  study  makes  no  effort  to  rescue  Hill's  poetry  from 
the  neglect  into  which  it  has  deservedly  fallen.  But  in 
following  his  career,  we  meet  well-known  figures,  we  catch 
glimpses  of  interesting  phases  of  eighteenth  century  thought 
and  enterprise,  and  we  come  to  know  a  man  who  has  no 
title  to  be  hailed  as  a  genius,  but  who  is,  nevertheless,  very 
far  from  deserving  to  be  dismissed  as  a  "bore  of  the  first 
water, "^  or  as  a  "joke  concocted  between  the  Muses  and 
Momus,  to  bring  the  judgments  of  mortals  into  contempt."^ 

In  the  unpublished  correspondence  between  Hill  and 
Samuel  Richardson,  preserved  in  the  Forster  MSS.  in  the 
Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  at  South  Kensington,  I  have 
found  the  most  interesting  record  of  Hill 's  later  life ;  and 
I  am  therefore  especially  indebted  to  the  Keeper  of  the 
Dyce  and  Forster  Collections  for  the  privilege  of  examining 
this  material.  In  quoting  from  the  correspondence,  I  have 
retained  the  original  spelling  and  punctuation;  but  in 
extracts  from  printed  works,  I  have  modernized  both,  for 
I  see  no  advantage  in  directing  attention  to  Hill's  vagaries 

necessarily  be  so  taken  up  with  its  own  bores  that  only  at  rare  inter- 
vals can  a  pious  pedantry  be  trusted  to  exhume  even  temporarily  the 
extinct  bores  of  the  past." 

2  As  he  is  characterized  in  the  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog. 

3  D.  C.  Tovey,  Memoir  of  Thomson  in  the  Aldine  ed.  of  his  works, 
1897,  p.  xxiii. 


PREFACE  XI 

in  the  use  of  commas  and  italics.  I  wish  to  express  my 
thanks  for  courteous  assistance  to  the  librarians  of  Yale, 
Harvard,  and  Columbia  Universities;  to  the  authorities  of 
the  British  Museum,  the  John  Rylands  Library  of  Man- 
chester, and  the  Bodleian ;  and  to  Professor  C,  H.  Firth  of 
Oxford  University,  through  whose  kindness  I  secured  read- 
ing privileges  at  the  Bodleian.  My  friend  Miss  E.  R.  Clapp 
examined  for  me  several  books  to  which  I  did  not  have 
access,  and  made  helpful  suggestions;  and  my  mother  has 
been  a  most  patient  and  valuable  critic  of  my  work  in  all 
its  stages. 

In  the  English  Department  at  Columbia  University,  my 
thanks  are  due  to  Professor  A.  H.  Thorndike  and  Dr.  Carl 
Van  Doren  for  reading  my  manuscript.  But  my  deepest 
obligation  is  to  Professor  W.  P.  Trent,  who  first  suggested 
the  subject  of  this  study,  and  whose  generous  interest  in  its 
progress  has  been  no  less  helpful  to  me  than  his  wide  and 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  period.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
express  here  my  appreciation  of  both. 
New  York  City,  May,  1913. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  Hill's  Early  Life  1 

II.  Hill's  Projects 28 

III.  Hill  and  the  Stage  :  1709-1723 76 

IV.  Hill  and  the  Stage  :  1723-1749 110 

V.  Hill  and  His  Circle  about  1725 153 

VI.  Hill  's  Relations  with  Pope 201 

VII.  Hill  and  Richardson 239 

VIII.  Conclusion  275 

Bibliography 279 

Index   291 


xui 


AARON  HILL 


CHAPTER   I 


HILL'S    EAELY   LIFE 


Aaron  Hill  was  born  on  February  10,  1685,  in  Beaufort 
Buildings  in  the  Strand.^  His  father  was  George  Hill,  an 
attorney,  of  Malmsbury  Abbey,  in  Wiltshire,  ' '  a  gentleman 
possessed  of  an  estate  of  about  2000  1.  a  year,  which  was 
entailed  upon  him,  and  the  eldest  son,  and  to  his  heirs  for 
many  descents.  But  the  unhappy  misconduct  of  Mr.  George 
Hill,  and  the  weakness  of  the  trustees,  entangled  it  in  such 
a  manner  as  hitherto  has  rendered  it  of  no  advantage  to 
his  family;  for,  without  any  legal  title  so  to  do,  he  sold  it 
all  at  different  times  for  sums  greatly  beneath  the  value 
of  it,  and  left  his  children  to  their  mother's  care,  and  her 
mother's  (Mrs.  Ann  Gregory),  who  took  great  pains  with 
her  grandson's  education."-  Perhaps  it  was  his  father's 
misuse  of  his  legal  knowledge  that  led  Aaron  Hill  to  acquire 
what  one  of  his  biographers  calls  a  "deep  insight"  into 
law — so  deep  that  his  arguments  sometimes  obliged  "the 
greatest  council  (formally)  under  their  hands  to  retract 
their  own  first  given  opinions."^  It  was  not  deep  enough 
to  enable  him  to  win  a  law-suit,  however.  Another  son  of 
George  Hill,  Gilbert,  appears  from  time  to  time  during 
his  brother  Aaron's  life  and  after  his  death,  usually  in  a 
state  of  distress. 

1  For  biographies  of  Hill,  see  the  Bibliography. 

2  Gibber's  Lives,  V,  252  f. 

3  Ibid.,  V,  261. 

2  1 


2  AARON    HILL 

At  the  age  of  nine,  Aaron  Hill  was  sent  to  the  free 
grammar-school  at  Barnstaple  in  Devon,  where  he  had  for 
a  schoolfellow  John  Gay,  also  born  in  1685.  From  Barn- 
staple he  went  to  "Westminster,  just  a  little  too  late  to  come 
under  the  rod  of  the  famous  Dr.  Busby,  who  died  in  1695. 
There  were  two  classes  of  students  at  Westminster :  To^^^l 
Boys,  and  King's  (or  Queen's)  Scholars,  elected  after  a 
year  from  among  the  Town  Boys.  Hill  evidently  remained 
a  Town  Boy,  for  Ms  name  does  not  appear  in  the  list  of 
those  elected  to  the  Foundation.  His  friendship  with 
Barton  Booth,  the  actor,  who  entered  the  school  about  1690 
and  left  in  1698  to  go  on  the  Dublin  stage,  probably  began 
at  Westminster;  and  perhaps  his  interest  in  the  stage  was 
first  aroused,  like  Booth's,  by  the  annual  Westminster  play. 
Another  Westminster  boy,  afterwards  famous, — John  Car- 
teret, Earl  of  Granville, — was  referred  to  by  Hill  as  a 
schoolfellow;*  but  he  must  have  entered  just  about  when 
Hill  left,  for  he  was  five  years  his  junior.  Hill  eulogized 
him  in  his  poem,  The  Impartial  (1745),  but  confided  to  his 
friend  Richardson  that  he  really  was  not  sure  that  what 
he  said  of  him  was  true.^ 

At  Westminster  Hill  received  the  usual  classical  educa- 
tion of  the  time.*'  One  little  contemporary  picture  of  con- 
ditions in  the  school  is  perhaps  worth  quoting.  The  mother 
of  a  Westminster  boy,  Colin  Campbell,  wrote  in  February, 
1691 :  * '  Cdin  is  a  busie  man  at  all  his  leasons ;  is  every 
day  at  scoul  all  this  winter  befor  7  o'clock,  and  his  wax 
candle  with  him,  and  doth  not  com  out  till  past  11,  and 
they  returne  at  1,  and  stay  until  neir  six.     This  was  far 

4  In  the  dedication  of  The  Impartial  to  Carteret  by  ' '  his  Lordship 's 
quondam  schoolfellow. ' ' 

5  Hill  to  Eiehardson,  April  6  and  9,  1744.     Forster  MSS. 

6  See  G.  F.  Eussell  Barker,  Memoir  of  Eichard  Bushy,  etc.,  London, 
1895,  and  John  Sargeaunt,  Annals  of  Westminster  School,  London, 
1898. 


HILL'S   EARLY   LIFE  6 

from  his  dyot  at  horn,  and  in  the  great  cold  scoul  he  sits  the 
whole  day  over  without  a  hatt  or  cap,  and  all  the  windows 
broak,  and  yet  thanks  be  to  God,  he  taks  very  well  with  it, 
tho  he  never  seeth  a  fire  but  in  my  hous."^  She  notes, 
however,  that  the  reputation  of  the  masters  for  severity  has 
not  been  borne  out  so  far  in  Colin 's  case.  Hill,  too,  unless 
the  boy  was  very  different  from  the  man,  was  probably  a 
' '  busie  man  at  his  leasons, ' '  and  tradition  says  that  he  was 
a  ''busie  man"  at  the  lessons  of  his  fellows  as  well:  "Under 
the  care  of  Dr.  Knipe,  his  genius  showed  itself  in  a  distin- 
guished light,  and  often  made  him  some  amends  for  his  hard 
fortune,  which  denied  him  such  supplies  of  pocket  money 
as  his  spirit  wished,  by  enabling  him  to  perform  the  tasks 
of  many  who  had  not  his  eapacity. '  '*  It  is  more  likely  that 
his  helpfulness  was  prompted  by  good-nature,  and  by  the 
inadequacy  of  his  own  tasks  to  employ  all  his  energy;  if 
he  really  increased  his  pocket  money  by  his  genius,  it  was, 
I  think,  the  only  instance  of  the  kind  in  his  life.  Aside 
from  this  anecdote,  there  is  little  to  show  what  sort  of  boy 
he  was,  except  one  reminiscence  of  his  own,  which  suggests 
that  he  was  imaginative  and  sensitive  to  impressions :  in  his 
Plain  Dealer,^  after  praising  Spenser  for  bold  descriptions 
and  quick,  penetrating  fancy,  he  goes  on:  "There  is  in 
his  works  an  image  of  Death  so  dreadfully  drawn,  and 
painted  in  such  glowing  colors,  that  (having  got  it  by  heart 
when  I  was  a  boy)  it  made  so  lively  an  impression  on  me 
that  I  never  failed  for  a  long  time  after  to  see  it  at  my 
bed's  foot  as  soon  as  the  candle  was  carried  out  of  the  room, 
and  met  it  in  every  churchyard  I  passed  over  after  sun- 
set. "^'^ 

"  Quoted  by  Sargeaunt,  Annals,  etc.,  287. 

8  Gibber's  Lives,   V,   253.     Dr.    Thomas  Knipe   was  Busby's   suc- 
cessor. 

9  No.  91. 

10  Hill 's  appreciation  of  earlier  poets  occasionally  took  a  form  that 


4  AARON   HILL 

The  conventional  Westminster  boy  proceeded  in  due 
course  either  to  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  or  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge;  but  Hill  was  not  the  conventional  boy.  "At 
fourteen  years  of  age  he  left  Westminster  school;  and 
shortly  after,  hearing  his  grandmother  make  mention  of  a 
relation  much  esteemed  (Lord  Paget,  then  ambassador  at 
Constantinople),  he  formed  a  resolution  of  paying  him  a 
visit  there,  being  likewise  very  desirous  of  seeing  that 
empire. "^^  Mrs.  Gregory,  being  a  woman  of  "uncommon 
understanding  and  great  good-nature,"  sympathized  with 
this  adventurous  scheme,  and  furnished  him  with  funds 
for  the  voyage.  He  embarked  on  ]\Iarch  2,  1700,  and 
travelled  by  way  of  Portugal  and  Italy.  Unfortunately, 
the  diary  he  is  said  to  have  kept  has  not  come  to  light, 
but  many  particulars  of  the  journey  were  incorporated  in 
his  Ottoman  Empire.  Lord  Paget  was  surprised  at  the 
arrival  of  his  young  relation,  and  it  is  a  proof  of  the  at- 
tractions of  Hill's  person  and  character  that  he  was  also 
pleased  at  the  boy's  enterprise.  He  promptly  provided  for 
him  "a  very  learned  ecclesiastic  in  his  own  house,  and 
under  his  tuition  sent  him  to  travel,  being  desirous  to  im- 
prove, so  far  as  possible,  the  education  of  a  person  he  found 
worthy  of  it. ' '  These  travels  took  Hill  to  Greece,  and  the 
islands    of   the   ^gean,    and   by   caravan    into   the    Holy 

arouses  the  ire  of  their  modern  admirers,  though  it  was  quite  in 
accord  with  the  feeling  of  his  own  age.  He  "improved"  poems  of 
Wotton  and  Donne.  (See  The  Disparity,  from  a  Hint  of  Sir  Henry 
Wotton,  WorTis,  III,  310;  and  To  a  Lady  wlio  Loved  Angling,  from  a 
Hint  out  of  Dr.  Donne,  Worts,  IV,  58.)  In  the  very  brief  notice  of 
Hill  in  TJie  Cambridge  History  of  Eng.  Lit.,  IX,  ch.  VI,  p.  210,  the 
alteration  of  Wotton 's  * '  You  meaner  beauties  of  the  night ' '  is  singled 
out  by  Professor  Saintsbury  as  a  crime  he  finds  it  very  difficult  to 
pardon  Hill  for. 

11  Life  by  "I.  K."  prefixed  to  Ilill's  Dramatic  Worls. 


HILL  S   EARLY   LIFE  O 

Land  ;^^  he  visited  ]\Iecea  as  well  as  Jerusalem.  He  was  in 
Egypt  in  the  spring  of  1701,  and  back  in  Constantinople  in 
1702.  Needless  to  say,  he  had  adventures,  and  the  most 
interesting  parts  of  his  Ottoman  Empire  are  those  in  which 
he  tells  of  them,  though  he  introduces  them  merely  by  way 
of  illustration. 

Once,  when  Hill  and  others  were  returning  from  a  visit 
to  a  British  ship,  they  met  a  Turkish  fanatic,  "a  certain 
tattered  wretch,  in  the  habit  of  a  pilgrim,  leaping  up  and 
down,  with  elevated  eyes,  contracted  forehead,  and  a  visage 
full  of  passion  and  deformity.  (He)  held  a  dagger  in  his 
hand,  and  skipped  about  with  such  .  .  .  violence  as  made 
me  take  his  zealous  transports  for  madness ;  so  that  taking 
him  for  some  simple  antic,  I  laughed  aloud  at  his  ex- 
travagant diversion.  He  saw  me  laugh  and  made  directly 
towards  me  with  his  brandished  weapon,  which  a  Greek  in- 
terpreter, endeavoring  to  turn  aside,  received  unhappily 
to  the  hilt  within  his  bosom."  He  then  hurled  his  dagger 
at  Hill,  who  avoided  it  by  dropping  to  his  knee.  Of  course 
Hill  killed  him." 

At  Sestos  and  Abydos,  Hill  paid  his  respects  to  the 
lovers;  and  after  quoting  Musfeus,  he  adds  with  a  trace  of 
humor  that  the  sentimental  traveller  has  opportunity 
enough  to  weep,  for  Turkish  official  red-tape  detains  him 
there  three  days.  At  Troy  he  was  sure  that  he  had  found 
a  fragment  of  the  original  wall  and  the  tomb  of  Hector. 
His  vessel  was  detained  near  the  coast  by  adverse  winds 
long  enough  to  permit  him  to  land,  with  an  Italian  priest, 

12  ic  >rp^g  really  a  diverting  entertainment  for  a  sprightly  fancy  to 
observe  what  multitudes  of  superstitious  Jews  swarm  up  and  down 
in  every  caravan ;  the  oldest,  ugliest,  and  most  decrepit  of  all  man- 
kind, who  flock  from  every  distant  corner  of  the  spacious  universe 
to  die  as  near  Jerusalem  as  possible,  and  load  themselves  and  other 
beasts  of  burden  with  the  musty  bones  and  tattered  relics  of  their 
dead  relations"  (Ottoman  Empire,  274). 

13  Ottovian  Empire,  82  f. 


6  AARON    HILL 

and  they  walked  about  three  miles  up  into  a  desolate 
country  overgrown  with  brambles.  At  least  one  English- 
man had  been  there  before  them,  for  scratched  on  the 
marble  of  the  supposed  tomb  of  Hector  were  the  lines : 

"  I  do  suppose  that  here  stood  Troy ; 
My  name  it  is  William,  a  jolly  Boy; 
My  other  name  it  is  Hudson,  and  so 
God  bless  the  sailors,  wherever  they  do  go. 

I  was  here  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1631,  and  was  bound  for  old 
England,  God  bless  her."^* 

At  Samos,  Hill  watched  the  sponge  divers,  and  tried 
diving  himself  with  their  apparatus,  though  "more  than 
most  men  averse  to  diving.  "^^  At  Patmos,  he  was  de- 
termined to  see  the  chapel  where  St.  John  was  said  to  have 
written  the  Book  of  Revelations;  and  unable  to  persuade 
anyone  to  go  on  shore  with  him,  he  landed  alone,  and  started 
out  with  pistols  and  scimetar  to  find  the  monastery.  While 
wandering  about,  quite  lost,  on  a  wooded  hill,  he  discovered 
"on  the  brow  of  an  impending  precipice  a  little  hut  or 
cave,"  with  a  door  which  he  pushed  open.  "I  was  all 
amazed  when  I  perceived  the  inside  of  the  cell  as  still  as 
possible;  .  .  .  just  against  the  entrance  burned  a  lamp  on 
either  side  a  little  altar,  and  the  weak  and  broken  light  .  .  . 
discovered  in  the  midst  a  large  black  coffin  filled  with 
something  ...  as  black  and  dismal  ...  as  the  coffin."  This 
dismal  something  was  a  living  Italian  hermit,  who  proved 
to  be  a  most  agreeable  companion,  and  escorted  the  young 
traveller  to  the  monastery.^*' 

1*  Ottoman  Empire,  206  f. 

15  Ibid.,  210-211.  He  and  liis  fellow  travellers  were  induced  to 
try  their  skill  when  they  heard  of  a  law  among'  the  divers  ' '  that  no 
man  shall  be  allowed  to  marry,  till  he  can  demonstrate  by  a  trial  he 
is  qualiiSed  to  dive  for  one  continued  quarter  of  an  hour."  Hill  kept 
his  head  under  only  two  minutes. 

10  Ibid.,  213  f, 


HILL  S   EARLY   LIFE  7 

Hill's  pictures  of  the  streets  of  Cairo — especially  of  a 
bowing  ass,  a  climbing  goat,  and  a  dancing  camel — are 
entertaining.^'  But  his  most  thrilling  adventure  happened 
in  the  catacombs,  some  fifteen  miles  southeast  of  IMemphis. 
To  visit  them  was  a  dangerous  enterprise,  for  they  were 
remote  from  protection,  and  the  wandering  Arabs  had  an 
unpleasant  custom  of  closing  the  entrances  after  travellers 
had  entered,  and  then  returning  "some  few  days  after  to 
divide  the  plunder  of  those  miscarried  gentlemen."  Hill 
and  three  others  secured  a  guide,  journeyed  all  night,  and 
found  the  desert  apparently  deserted.  Near  the  opening  of 
the  catacombs,  however,  they  were  surprised  to  see  a  ladder 
of  ropes.  They  "went  backwards  down,  with  each  man  a 
pistol  in  one  hand  and  a  lighted  torch  in  the  other.  A 
strange  uncommon  smell  saluted  our  first  entrance  with  an 
odor  not  to  be  imagined  by  such  as  have  not  known  it  by 
experience,  and  the  blazing  torches,  striking  a  faint  glim- 
mering light  through  the  thickness  of  the  gloom,  discovered, 
as  we  walked  along,  on  either  side  the  discolored  faces  of 
the  dead,  with  a  strange  and  inexpressible  horror.  We  had 
scarce  passed  three  yards  within  the  vault  when  the  fore- 

1"  Ibid.,  242  f.  Hill  did  not  rest  till  he  found  out  how  they  taught 
the  camels  to  dance :  ' '  They  make  a  large  square  hollow  place  oh 
some  stone  pavement,  not  unlike  a  bath,  of  such  depth  that  nothing 
let  down  thither  can  get  out  again  but  with  the  same  assistance  he 
was  first  put  in  by.  Under  this  paved  floor^  consisting  .  .  .  of  .  .  . 
fire-stone,  is  built  a  furnace  into  which  they  put  a  necessary  quantity 
of  wood,  and  heating  it  to  what  degree  they  please,  the  stones  grow 
hot  like  some  mild  oven.  Then  they  put  the  poor  meek  camel  into  this 
square  hollow,  heated  as  it  is,  and  standing  around  the  edges  of  the 
place  begin  to  sound  their  drums  or  other  instruments;  continuing  so 
to  do,  while  the  unhoofed  and  tender-footed  camel,  all  impatient  of 
the  heat,  first  draws  up  one  leg,  then  another,  changing  swifter  as  the 
heat,  increasing,  burns  his  feet  with  greater  anguish,  till  at  last  he 
rears  himself  on  end,  and  capers  nimbly  on  his  hinder  feet,  as  if  he 
strove  to  imitate  a  dancer."  After  a  course  of  this  training,  he  is 
ready  to  dance  anywhere  at  the  sound  of  that  music. 


8  AARON   HILL 

most  of  our  company,  stumbling  accidentally  on  something 
that  lay  in  his  way,  fell  headlong  over  it ;  whereupon,  hold- 
ing down  our  torches,  we  perceived  two  men  in  Christian 
habits,  extended  cross  each  other,  and  appearing  newly 
dead,  with  all  the  pale  and  frightful  marks  of  a  convulsive 
horror  in  their  .  .  .  faces.  Between  the  feet  of  one  there 
lay  a  pocketbook  and  pencil,  which  taking  up  and  opening, 
we  read  with  great  difficulty  .  .  .  lines  there  written  in 
Italian. ' '  It  seems  the  unfortunate  Italians  had  been  shut 
in  by  Arabs  on  June  18,  1701 ;  it  was  then  June  22, 
Alarmed,  the  explorers  hurried  back  to  the  entrance, 
arriving  just  in  time  to  see  the  stone  shoved  over  the  aper- 
ture by  some  persons  above.  The  ladder  was  gone.  Hill 
urged  the  company  to  search  for  some  other  exit,  and  keep- 
ing only  one  torch  alight,  they  hurried  from  vault  to  vault. 
Suddenly  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  six  faces  against  a  wall 
ahead  of  them.  "With  one  consent  we  fired  our  pistols. 
'Tis  impossible  to  make  the  reader  sensible  of  the  pro- 
digious loud  report  and  rumbling  noise  this  one  discharge 
created  in  the  vault.  .  .  .  Whether  fear,  or  some  unlucky 
accident  produced  the  cause,  .  .  .  the  frighted  guide  let  fall 
his  torch,  which  presently  extinguished."  Wlien  the 
smoke  cleared  away,  they  perceived  a  ray  of  light,  and 
followed  the  gleam  until  they  came  to  a  hole  in  the  wall, 
through  which  they  finally  escaped  into  daylight.  Several 
Arabs  were  riding  off  with  their  mules ;  they  had  evidently 
come  back  to  plunder  the  Italians  and  had  been  surprised 
by  Hill's  party.  Just  then  some  Turkish  soldiers  arrived 
opportunely,  recovered  the  mules,  and  allowed  the  party 
to  finish  in  safety  their  explorations  in  the  catacombs,  and 
to  attend  to  the  obsequies  of  the  Italians.^^ 

18  Ottoman  Empire,  264  f .  The  cut  illustrating  this  adventure 
represents  a  cross  section  of  the  vaults,  quite  in  the  style  of  a  bill- 
board for  a  modern  melodrama,  and  allows  us  to  see  the  desert,  two 
stories  of  the  catacombs,  and  all  that  is  happening  above  and  below 


hill's  early  life  9 

After  all  these  adventures — rather  unusual  for  a  boy — 
Hill  returned  to  Constantinople,  apparently  near  the  end 
of  the  year  1701  or  the  beginning  of  1702.  In  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  Lord  Paget 's  kindness,  prefixed  to  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  Hill  writes  that  after  visiting  Palestine,  Egypt, 
and  other  eastern  parts,  he  came  to  Constantinople  "time 
enough  to  owe  the  best  improvements  of  my  education  to 
the  generous  care  of  this  wise  nobleman,  whose  instructions 
and  example  gave  me  first  a  notion  of  the  world,  and  under 
whose  protection  I  was  afterwards  so  happy  as  to  see  it  to 
advantage,  having  had  the  honor  to  attend  him  from  the 
Turkish  court  to  England,  in  a  journey  overland  through 
almost  all  the  celebrated  parts  of  Christendom."  Lord 
Paget,  with  his  suite,  started  on  his  return  some  time  in  the 
late  spring  or  early  summer  of  1702;  he  went  by  way  of 
Bulgaria  and  Roumania  into  Germany;  in  September  he 
reached  Holland,  and  was  then  ordered  to  proceed  to 
Vienna;  and  in  December  he  went  from  Vienna  to  the  court 
of  Bavaria.  Not  until  April  12,  1703,  did  he  and  his  suite 
arrive  in  England,  after  a  passage  from  Holland  that  had 
been  enlivened  by  a  sea-fight  with  the  French. ^^ 

The  next  certain  date  in  Hill's  life  is  that  of  the  publica- 
tion of  his  Camillus  in  1707,  He  probably  remained  at- 
tached to  Lord  Paget 's  household  for  a  short  time  after  the 
return  to  England,  and  it  may  be  to  this  period  that  the 
mysterious  operations  of  a  malevolent  female,  mentioned  by 
his  biographer,  belong  r" ' '  He  was  in  great  esteem  with  that 

ground.  Lady  Mary  W.  Montagu  remembered  this  adventure  when 
she  contradicted  a  statement  of  the  admirable  Mr.  Hill's  about  the 
sweating  pillar  of  St.  Sophia;  she  says  (incorrectly,  according  to 
her  editor)  that  "there  is  not  the  least  tradition  of  any  such  matter; 
and  I  suppose  it  was  revealed  to  him  in  vision  during  his  wonderful 
stay  in  the  Egyptian  catacombs"  (Letters  and  Worlcs,  ed.  of  1887, 
I,  236). 

loLuttrell,  Brief  Historical  Belation,  IV,  287   (April  13,  1703). 

30  Gibber's  Lives,  V,  254. 


10  AARON    HILL 

nobleman ;  insomuch  that  in  all  probability  he  had  been  still 
more  distinguished  by  him  at  his  death  than  in  his  lifetime, 
had  not  the  envious  fears  and  malice  of  a  certain  female, 
who  was  in  high  authority  with  that  lord,  prevented  and 
supplanted  his  kind  disposition  towards  him.  ]\Iy  lord 
took  great  pleasure  in  instructing  him  himself,  WTOte  him 
whole  books  in  different  languages,  on  which  his  student 
placed  the  greatest  value;  which  was  no  sooner  taken  notice 
of  by  jealous  observation  than  they  were  stolen  from  his 
apartment,  and  suffered  to  be  some  days  missing,  to  the 
great  displeasure  of  my  lord,  but  still  much  greater  affliction 
of  his  pupil,  whose  grief  for  losing  a  treasure  he  so  highly 
valued  was  more  than  doubled  by  perceiving  that,  from 
some  false  insinuation  that  had  been  made,  it  was  believed 
he  had  himself  wilfully  lost  them.  But  young  Mr.  Hill  was 
soon  entirely  cleared  on  that  head," 

It  may  have  been  some  such  misunderstanding  that 
started  Hill  off  on  his  travels  again,  or  it  may  simply  have 
been  that  a  good  opportunity  for  further  travel  presented 
itself.  Eighteen,  he  wrote  later,  was  too  early  an  age  for  a 
young  man  to  think  of  leaving  England ;  ' '  this  I  know  by 
personal  experience,  having  been  beholding  to  my  latter 
travels  for  a  full  digestion  and  improvement  of  the  unripe 
observations  vainly  gathered  in  my  former."-^  When  a 
young  man  is  sent  abroad,  he  should  be  accompanied  by  a 
tutor  not  much  older  than  himself,  but  of  riper  experience. 
It  happened  fortunately  that  a  noble  family  in  Yorkshire 
shared  this  view,  and  gave  into  Hill's  charge  a  young 
gentleman,  with  whom  he  travelled  for  two  or  three  years. 
This  was  William  Wentworth,  of  Bretton  Hall  in  Yorkshire, 
who  was  born  in  1686,  and  succeeded  his  father.  Sir 
Matthew,  in  the  baronetcy  in  March,  1706."     It  is  very 

21  Ottoman  Empire,  333. 

22  Joseph  Hunter,  South  Yorlshire,  London,  1828,  II,  243.  Sir 
William  was  afterwards  Deputy  Lieutenant  and  Captain  of  Train 


hill's  early  life  11 

probable  that  their  travels  were  brought  to  an  end  by  the 
death  of  the  young  man's  father.  All  that  is  recorded  of 
this  episode  in  Hill's  life  is  that  he  brought  his  pupil  home 
''improved,"  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  relations.  No  doubt 
this  was  a  more  conventional  tour  than  the  former. 

And  now,  about  1706-1707,  Aaron  Hill  was  back  in  Eng- 
land, much  improved  himself  by  his  unusual  education,  and 
with  one  "improved"  youth  to  his  credit.  What  was  he 
going  to  do?  With  the  activities  of  his  life  in  one's  mind, 
one  might  better  ask,  what  was  he  not  going  to  do?  He 
was  evidently  a  very  engaging  young  man.  The  pleasant 
impression  made  by  his  portrait  in  the  Ottoman  Eynpire 
(1709)  is  confirmed  by  the  description  of  him  in  Gibber's 
Lives:  "His  person  was  (in  youth)  extremely  fair  and 
handsome ;  his  eyes  were  a  dark  blue,  both  bright  and 
penetrating;  brown  hair  and  visage  oval;  which  was  en- 
livened by  a  smile  the  most  agreeable  in  conversation; 
where  his  address  was  affably  engaging;  to  which  was 
joined  a  dignity  which  rendered  him  at  once  respected  and 
admired  by  those  (of  either  sex)  who  were  acquainted  with 
him.  He  was  tall,  genteelly  made,  and  not  thin.  His  voice 
was  sweet,  his  conversation  elegant,  and  capable  of  enter- 
taining upon  various  subjects." 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  figures  in  public  life  at  the 
moment  was  the  Earl  of  Peterborough.  For  about  two 
years  he  had  been  carrying  on  the  campaign  in  Valencia, 
in  the  interests  of  the  Allies,  who  were  supporting  the 
claims  of  Charles  of  Austria  to  the  Spanish  throne ;  he  had 
been  the  hero  of  several  brilliant  victories — notably  the 
capture  of  Barcelona — and  of  many  striking  incidents.  At 
times,  he  had  conducted  himself  more  like  a  knight  errant 
than  the  general  of  an  army.      Not  the  least  interesting 

bands,  and  M.  P.  for  Malton.  His  name  is  in  the  list  of  subscribers 
both  to  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  to  Hill's  JVorls,  1753. 


12  AARON    HILL 

feature  of  this  Valencia  campaign  was  (and  is)  the  diffi- 
culty of  finding  out  the  truth  about  it.  Peterborough  has 
sometimes  been  exalted  as  a  hero  and  sometimes  cried  down 
as  a  mere  figure-head.-^  He  was,  says  one  of  his  biog- 
raphers, "a  source  of  delightful  possibilities;  nobody  knew 
exactly  what  he  had  done,  and  nobody  could  predict  what 
he  might  not  do."^*  His  conduct  in  Valencia  aroused  some 
suspicions  in  the  government  at  home,  and  he  was  recalled 
to  England  in  Februarj^,  1707.  On  his  way  back,  he  visited 
many  of  the  courts  of  Europe,  conducting  negotiations  with 
powers  to  whom  he  was  not  accredited,  and  did  not  reach 
England  until  August.  The  Queen  refused  to  see  him, 
unless  he  explained  satisfactorily  several  incidents  in  his 
career.  Although  he  was  a  Whig,  the  Tories,  out  of  hostility 
to  his  rival  ^Marlborough,  took  up  his  cause,  and  Dr.  Freind 
published  a  favorable  account  of  his  conduct  in  Spain.  In 
January,  1708,  a  Parliamentary  inquiry  was  held,  with  the 
result  that  he  was  neither  vindicated  nor  censured,  but  was 
ordered  to  clear  up  his  accounts. 

23  The  Military  Memoirs  of  Captain  George  Carleton,  etc.,  1728, 
long  regarded  as  containing  the  direct  evidence  of  an  eye-witness  of 
Peterborough's  exploits,  pictured  him  as  a  hero.  These  Memoirs  were 
claimed  for  Defoe  by  his  biographer  Walter  Wilson  in  1830.  Colonel 
Arthur Parnell  (History  of  the  War  of  the  Succession  in  Spain,  1SS8), 
who  believed  that  Peterborough  himself  promoted  the  writing  of  the 
Memoirs  and  that  Swift  wrote  them,  removed  Peterborough  from  his 
prominent  place  in  the  Valencia  campaign,  and  gave  the  credit  of 
many  of  his  exploits  to  others — to  Prince  George  of  Hesse-Darmstadt, 
Basset  y  Eamos,  Sir  John  Leake,  and  so  on.  The  Earl  emerges  from 
Colonel  Parnell's  account  with  his  character  as  a  general  and  as  a 
man  considerably  battered.  William  Stebbing,  whose  Peterborough 
(1890)  is  named  by  the  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog.  as  one  of  the  best  short 
accounts,  takes  a  much  more  favorable  view  of  Peterborough  than 
Parnell.  In  volume  IX  of  The  Cambridge  History  of  Eng.  Lit.,  page 
25.  Professor  Trent — as  Mr.  C.  E.  Doble  had  done  before — concludes 
that  Defoe  was  almost  certainly  the  shaper  of  Carleton 's  Memoirs. 

-i  William  Stebbing,  Peterborough,  192,  London  and  New  York, 
1890. 


hill's  early  life  13 

Peterborough's  exploits  in  Spain  were  precisely  of  the 
sort  to  strike  the  imagination  of  Hill, — they  were  very 
unusual,  they  showed  ingenuity  and  enterprise.  And  ac- 
cordingly, Hill  sat  down  and  wrot*  a  poem  to  the  general — 
Camillus.  The  hero's  name  is  attacked;  the  Muse  should 
assist  justice  in  proclaiming  the  truth;  but  the  task  of 
singing  his  praise  is  one  of  such  difficulty  that  it  causes 
tumultuous  terrors  to  roll  about  the  poet's  breast — "Here 
justice  summons;  there  my  youth  denies."  After  this 
apology,  the  poet  plunges  into  the  "War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession : 

"  A  wild  confusion  o'er  the  globe  is  hurled, 
And  waxlike  earthquakes  shake  the  Christian  world." -^ 

In  the  confusion,  Charles  of  Austria  directs  his  prayers  to 
"matchless  Anne";  Anne  sends  to  his  rescue  a  chief  formed 
by  art  and  nature  to  revenge  the  wrongs  of  Charles;  the 
expedition  embarks  for  Barcelona  with  a  good  wind  and 
swelling  hopes.  The  greater  part  of  the  poem  is  taken  up 
with  a  description  of  the  capture  of  Montjuich,  a  fortress 
commanding  Barcelona.  It  was  a  daring  exploit,  and  in 
Hill's  account  loses  notliing  in  exciting  detail.  One  speci- 
men will  suffice: 

"  The  shattered  limbs  of  men  who  nobly  dare 
Are  borne  on  bullets  through  the  flaming  air; 
The  dismal  prospect  shocks  the  bravest  hearts, 
And  adds  new  motion  to  disjointed  parts."  -^ 

The  walls  are  finally  won,  not  by  the  army,  but  by  the 
general  who  "needs  no  council,  and  who  seeks  no  praise." 
25  Ed.  of  1707,  11.  66-67. 

2«In  Hill's  Worls  (17.53)  there  are  a  number  of  variations  from 
the  edition  of  1707;  probably  he  was  aiming  at  closer  expression — 
which  too  often  means  obscurity  with  him ;  for  example : 

(1707)     "With  helpless  sighs  the  injured  Austrian  stands." 
(1753)     "Sighing,  the  young  prevented  Austrian  stands." 


14  AARON   HILL 

The  Muse  would  like  to  paint  all  his  battles,  but  as  that  is 
impossible,  she  greets  his  safe  return,  and  throws  the  worth- 
less numbers  at  his  feet. 

The  Earl  noticed  the  worthless  numbers,  was  pleased  with 
them,  inquired  after  the  author,  and  made  him  his  secre- 
tary.-'^ This  enterprising  and  travelled  young  man  had 
expressed  in  his  indifferent  poem  precisely  what  Peter- 
borough felt  to  be  true  of  himself — that  he  needed  no 
counsel  but  his  own.  It  is  easy  to  see  what  sympathy  might 
exist  between  such  a  man  as  Peterborough  and  young  Hill. 
The  Earl  was  an  adventurous  spirit,  " irrepressibly  elastic," 
with  a  brain  "so  fruitful  in  combinations  that  they  jostled 
and  thrust  one  another  out";-^  and  just  those  terms  could 
be  used  in  describing  Hill,  though  he  had  not  as  yet  estab- 
lished his  claim  to  them. 

The  eonnection  with  Peterborough  is  said  to  have  lasted 
until  Hill's  marriage  in  1710.^"  Possibly  he  assisted  the 
Earl  in  straightening  out  his  accounts;  and  since  he  is  be- 
lieved to  have  kept  no  accounts  worth  mentioning,  the  task 
could  not  have  been  absorbing.^*'  The  vindication  of  Peter- 
borough in  1710,  after  a  renewed  inquiry,  was  not  the  re- 

27  Gibber 's  Lives,  V,  255. 

28  Stebbing,  Peterborough,  227. 

29  As  late  as  September  17,  1709,  Peterborough  was  taking  an 
interest  in  the  Hill  family,  for  Hill  writes  to  Archdeacon  Warley  that 
his  brother  is  ' '  sure  of  a  considerable  curacy  and  promise  of  a  pres- 
entation from  the  Earl  of  Peterboro,  on  the  death  of  an  old  and  sickly 
incumbent."  The  brother  had  evidently  been  misconducting  himself 
at  Clare  Hall,  Cambridge,  and  wished  to  make  atonement  by  taking 
orders,  "tho  .  .  .  unqualified  by  the  Formality  of  a  Degree";  he 
will  be  grateful  to  the  archdeacon  for  a  recommendation  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  for  leave  to  be  ordained  (Add.  MSS.  27997.  f.  78. 
Aaron  Hill  to  the  Archdeacon  of  Colchester). 

30  "As  he  could  render  no  regular  accounts,  his  property  was 
attached  till  he  should  have  cleared  up  his  pay-lists.  .  .  .  Throughout 
the  remainder  of  1708  and  the  early  months  of  1709  he  was  occupied 
with  the  compilation  of  ledgers. ' '     Stebbing,  169. 


hill's  early  life  15 

suit  of  a  satisfactory  statement  of  his  accounts — it  simply 
meant  that  there  were  then  more  Tories  than  Whigs  in 
Parliament.^^  The  secretary  also  examined  the  Earl's 
papers.  Pope,  commenting,  many  years  after,  on  a  flatter- 
ing reference  to  Peterborough  in  Hill's  Advice  to  the  Poets 
(1731),  wrote  to  Hill  that  really  no  one  but  the  general 
himself  could  do  his  cause  full  justice  :  "I  have  long  pressed 
him  to  put  together  many  papers  lying  by  him  to  that  end. 
On  this  late  occasion,  he  told  me  you  had  formerly  en- 
deavored the  same,  and  it  comes  into  my  mind  that  on  many 
of  those  papers  I  had  seen  an  endorsement,  A.  H.,  which 
I  fancy  might  be  those  you  overlooked.  My  lord  spoke  of 
you  with  great  regard,  and  told  me  how  narrowly  you  both 
missed  of  going  together  on  an  adventurous  expedition.  "^^ 
Joseph  Warton  notes  that  this  was  an  expedition  to  the  West 
Indies  ;^^  there  was  a  rumor  current  in  July,  1708,  that 
Peterborough  was  to  be  appointed  governor  of  Jamaica,^* 
and  it  may  be  to  this  that  Warton  refers.  Pope's  letter 
bears  witness  to  the  continuation,  long  after  the  close  of  the 
secretaryship,  of  Hill's  friendly  relations  with  the  Earl; 
and  Hill  visited  Peterborough  at  Parson's  Green  not  long 
before  the  latter 's  death.^^ 

That  Hill's  duties  were  not  arduous  is  evident  from  the 

31  The  Earl  is  said  to  have  introduced  Hill  to  the  Tories,  Harley  and 
St.  John ;  and  though  Hill  was  not  a  party  man — the  one  thing  he  did 
not  do  to  any  extent  was  to  engage  actively  in  politics — he  never 
lost  his  admiration  for  Bolingbroke.  Merope  and  G-ideon  were  both 
dedicated  to  him;  see  in  the  Merope  dedication  such  lines  as 

"Find  every  grace  that  smiles  twixt  pole  and  pole, 
And  all  the  muses  met — in  St.  John's  soul." 

32  Pope  to  Hill,  April  4,  1731.     Co?,  of  1751. 

33  Worl<s  of  Pope,  ed.  by  Warton,  1797,  VIII,  330.  Peterborough 
had  received  the  same  appointment  in  1702,  but  did  not  go. 

3-1  Stebbing,  Peterborough,  169. 

35  The  visit  is  recorded  in  the  introduction  to  Hill 's  Fanciad.  They 
talked  of  Marlborough  and  his  modesty. 


16  AARON    HILL 

record  of  his  literary  activity  during  this  period.  The  year 
1708  saw  two  of  his  poems  published,  his  Ottoman  Empire 
advertised  as  ready  for  publication,  and  a  connection  with 
the  British  Apollo  established.  He  was  probably  frequent- 
ing the  coffee-houses  and  mingling  in  literary  society.  We 
find  him  associated  with  Nahum  Tate  in  a  translation,  and 
helping  his  old  school-fellow  Gay  to  get  on  his  feet.  Gay's 
first  poem.  Wine,  was  advertised  in  May,  1708,  in  the  Daily 
Courant,  together  with  the  Celebrated  Speeches  of  Ajax 
and  Ulysses,  by  Tate  and  Hill.  Rumor  assigns  to  Gay  as 
his  earliest  employment,  after  he  gave  up  his  trade  of 
mercer,  that  of  secretary  to  Hill :  ' '  Gay  became  amanuensis 
to  Aaron  Hill,  Esq.,  when  that  gentleman  set  on  foot  the 
project  of  answering  questions  in  a  weekly  paper  called  the 
British  Apollo."^^  Whether  or  not  Gay  was  really  his 
secretary,  he  probably  was  much  in  the  company  of  Hill 
at  the  time ;  for  when,  in  1736,  Savage  wished  to  collect 
information  about  Gay,  he  applied  to  Hill  as  apparently 
the  one  who  could  tell  most  of  his  early  career.  Hill 
mentioned  Budgell  and  Pope  as  better  informed ;  but  added 
that  Gay  was  secretary  to  the  Duchess  of  Monmouth  about 
1713,  and  continued  so  until  he  went  over  to  Hanover  in 
1714;  and  after  the  fall  of  the  Tories,  he  was  helped  by 
Pope:  "I  remember  a  letter,"  writes  Hill,  "wherein  he 
[Pope]  invited  him  to  partake  of  his  fortune  (at  that  time 
but  a  small  one),  assuring  him,  with  a  very  unpoetical 
warmth,  that  as  long  as  he  himself  had  a  shilling,  i\Ir.  Gay 
should  be  welcome  to  sixpence  of  it ;  nay,  to  eightpence,  if 
he  could  contrive  but  to  live  on  a  groat. '  '^^ 

That  Hill  was  connected  ^^nih.  the  British  Apollo  is  estab- 
lished by  the  facts  that  the  numbers  for  the  first  year,  1708, 
contain  a  dozen  or  more  short  poems,  unsigned,  but  later 

sfi  Key  to  Three  Hours  after  Marriage,  1717. 

ST  Hill  to  Savage,  June  23,  1736.     Works,  1,  338  f. 


hill's  early  life  17 

included  in  Hill's  acknowledged  works;  and  that  a  Mr. 
IMarsliall  Smith,  who  edited  the  second  edition  of  this  first 
volume,  figures  in  Savage 's  Miscellany  as  author  with  Hill 
of  a  dialogue  on  riches  and  poverty.  Hill's  works,  too, 
both  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  Elf  rid,  were  extensively 
advertised  in  the  paper.  The  British  Apollo  was  started  in 
February,  1708,  by  a  "society  of  gentlemen";  the  second 
volume  (1709)  was  "performed"  by  some  of  the  gentle- 
men concerned  in  the  first.  As  to  their  identity,  it  is 
perhaps  enough  to  quote  Apollo's  own  answer  to  a  cor- 
respondent's question  about  their  age,  number,  and  share 
in  the  work:  "It  must  suffice  to  say  that  the  number  of 
the  society  is  large  enough,  and  all  of  them  of  sufficient  age, 
to  answer  far  more  pertinent  questions  than  yours." 

The  British  Apollo  was  by  far  the  most  important  and 
successful  of  the  imitators  of  Dunton's  Athenian  Gazette 
(later  the  Athenian  Mercury),  which  had  appeared  twice 
a  week  for  six  years,  from  March,  1690.^^  The  purpose  of 
Dunton's  publication — a  seventeenth  century  Notes  and 
Queries — was  to  resolve  "all  the  most  nice  and  curious 
questions  proposed  by  the  Ingenious  of  either  Sex";  and 
this  was  also  the  chief  purpose  of  the  British  Apollo.  But 
to  the  "curious  amusements  for  the  ingenious,"  Apollo 
added  "the  most  material  occurrences,  foreign  and  do- 
mestic," and  much  verse, — which  had  been  very  sparingly 
printed  in  the  Athenian  Mercury.  In  both  papers  there 
are  questions  concerning  the  Bible,  medicine,  physics, 
mathematics,  and  ethics;  discussions  of  love  problems; 
queries  why  negroes  are  black,  why  the  Lord  took  six  days 
instead  of  one  minute  to  create  the  world,  why  it  hails  in 
warm  weather,  what  causes  freckles,  how  to  know  true 
religion,   whether  English   was   spoken   at   the   Tower  of 

38  See  The  English  Literary  Periodical  of  Morals  and  Manners,  by 
John  Griffith  Ames,  1904,  pp.  7-22. 
3 


18  AARON    HILL 

Babel,  and  so  on.  Most  of  the  answers  in  the  British  Apollo 
are  serious  in  tone,  but  a  few  attempt  to  be  humorous.^® 
The  Female  Tatlei-^^  was  witty  at  the  expense  of  the  paper, 
classing  its  querists  as  drapers,  grocers,  alehouse  keepers, 
and  such  trash,  and  declaring  that  the  prentices  in  Cheap- 
side  consult  Apollo  before  making  love  to  their  mistresses. 
But  the  paper,  like  its  predecessor,  answered  a  real  demand 
of  the  public,  and  drew  its  patrons  from  many  walks  of 
life;  and  it  had  a  very  successful  career,  until  it  was  sup- 
planted in  popular  esteem  by  the  Tatler  and  the  Spectator. 
In  all  probability.  Hill  had  long  ceased  to  have  any  con- 
nection with  it  when  his  friend  Gay,  in  his  Present  State  of 
Wit  (May  3,  1711),  found  room  in  a  postscript  for  a  slight- 
ing reference:  ''Upon  a  review  of  my  letter,  I  find  I  have 
quite  forgotten  the  British  Apollo,  which  might  possibly 
have  happened  from  its  having  of  late  retreated  out  of  this 
end  of  the  town  into  the  country;  where,  I  am  informed, 
however,  that  it  still  recommends  itself  by  deciding  wagers 
at  cards,  and  giving  good  advice  to  shopkeepers  and  their 
apprentices."  A  week  after  Gay's  comment,  the  paper 
died. 

Those  poems  that  are  certainly  of  Hill's  authorship  are 
not  at  all  remarkable,  and  are  very  short.*^     Of  the  lighter 

39  An  example  of  Apollo 's  wit  may  be  quoted  from  vol.  II,  no.  7 : 
A  querist  liad  formerly  troubled  Apollo  with  a  question  how  to  win 
the  love  of  a  lady;  he  followed  directions  and  won  it;  now  he  wished 
to  know  why  ladies  are  fond  of  lap-dogs  and  singing-birds;  "for  the 
same  reason,"  replies  Apollo,  "that  your  mistress  was  conquered  by 
your  wit — because  they  are  little. ' ' 

40  No.  30.     It  lived  from  July  to  March,  1709-1710. 

41  T/ie  Lover's  Degree  of  Comparison  (Apollo,  ed.  of  1711,  I,  34; 
Works,  1753,  III,  11)  ;  Jostling  in  Snoivy  Weather  (I,  49,  and  Worls, 
III,  359) ;  The  Lover's  Complaint  (I,  60,  and  TForAs,  III,  231) ;  The 
Transport  (I,  233,  and  Worlds,  III,  232);  The  Rappy  Man  (I,  49, 
and  WorTcs,  III,  163)  ;  Amorous  Scrutiny  (I,  60,  and  WorTcs,  III,  360)  ; 
Blowing  Kisses  at  the  Playhouse  (I,  49,  and  WorTcs,  III,  344). 


hill's  early  life  19 

verse,  the  Lover's  Degree  of  Comparison  is  a  fair  example: 

"  Happy  the  man  who  does  Celiuda  view. 
More  happy  he  who  sees  and  loves  her  too. 
Most  happy,  sure!  of  all  mankind  is  he, 
Who,  loving  her,  beloved  by  her  shall  be." 

The  Transport  shows  Hill  already  addicted  to  Pindaric 
verse : 

"  Mount,  my  freed  soul !  forsake  thy  loosening  clay, 
Broadly  at  once  expand  thy  wingy  zeal; 
Rapture,  involved  in  raptures,  feel, 
And  through  yon  dazzling  regions  cut  thy  way,"  etc. 

A  more  ambitious  attempt,  on  the  lines  of  Camillus,  was 
inspired  by  an  event  that  occurred  in  the  spring  of  1708. 
In  March,  a  French  fleet  assembled  at  Dunkirk,  with  the 
Pretender  on  board,  and  on  March  17  set  sail  for  Scotland, 
where  some  attempts  had  been  made  to  organize  a  rebellion 
in  favor  of  the  Pretender.  The  fleet  missed  the  Firth  of 
Forth,  was  closely  pursued  by  the  English  fleet  under  the 
command  of  Admiral  Byng,  encountered  heavy  storms,  and 
after  about  three  weeks,  put  back  into  Dunkirk,  having  lost 
some  four  thousand  men  from  sickness,  tempest,  and 
capture.*^  On  this  subject  Hill  wrote  The  Invasion,  ad- 
dressed to  the  Queen.*^  The  poem  tells  how  the  fiend 
Ambition  disturb's'the  repose  of  the  king  on  Gallia 's  throne ; 
how  the  king  and  the  Pretender  plan  an  invasion ;  how  the 

42  See  The  Political  History  of  England,  ed.  William  Hunt  and 
Reginald  L.  Poole,  IX,  ch.  VII,  134  f.     London,  1909. 

43  The  poem  is  by  "Mr.  Hill";  and  is  almost  certainly  Aaron  Hill's 
work,  for  it  is  very  much  like  Camillus  in  style  and  subject.  The  fact 
that  it  is  not  included  in  his  collected  JVorls  proves  nothing,  for 
another  long  poem,  The  Fanciad,  is  not  included  either;  and  we  have 
his  word  (Forster  MSS.)  that  he  had  many  published  and  unpublished 
poems  from  which  he  was  making  a  selection  for  his  WorliS.  Thomas 
Biekerton  was  the  printer  of  Caviillus,  The  Invasion,  and  (with 
William  Keble)  the  Speeches  of  Ajax  and  Ulysses. 


20  AARON    HILL 

army  and  fleet  assemble  at  Dunkirk,  where  "tonitruous 
drums"  beat,  "neigbing  horses  snort  a  great  design,"  and 
warlike  ensigns  "in  pendant  curlings  fan  the  wanton  air." 
England  hurriedly  despatches  her  fleet  against  the  in- 
vaders : 

"  Britannia's  sons  with  cheerful  shouts  come  nigh, 
And  their  loud  triiunphs  pierce  the  vaulted  sky; 
On  the  high  decks,  the  gTaceful  chiefs  appear; 
Invite  the  battle  and  disdain  to  fear. 
Their  sprightly  trumpets  gay  defiance  sound, 
And  wondering  fishes  dance  in  shoals  around." 

No  wonder  the  Pretender's  knees  knock  together  at  the 
sight.  To  see  the  battle  that  follows,  Neptune  takes  up  his 
station  on  a  rock,  Jove  reclines  on  a  cloud,  and  all  the  gods 
look  on,  stretched  at  wanton  ease  upon  the  strengthened  air. 
Jove  chooses  for  some  reason  to  help  the  French  tyrant  by 
interposing  a  cloud  of  darkness  between  the  navies,  and 
Neptune,  furious,  stirs  up  a  storm  that  nearly  destroys  the 
French  fleet. 

"  Such  fate  may  Anna's  foes  forever  find ; 
May  Heaven  on  her  still  smile,  nor  Hell  disturb  her  mind." 

In  May,  1708,  Nalium  Tate  and  Hill  appeared  together 
as  the  authors  of  a  translation.  The  Celebrated  Speeches 
of  Ajax  and  Ulysses,  from  the  13th  book  of  Ovid's  Meta- 
morphoses. They  dedicated  it  to  the  illustrious  youth  of 
the  nobility  and  gentry,  to  assist  them  in  learning  to  speak 
in  affairs  of  state ;  since  Ajax  lost  his  cause  and  Ulysses  won 
his,  their  methods  are  worthy  of  study.  The  authors  are 
not  discouraged  by  previous  renderings  of  the  same 
passages,  even  by  the  Master  of  the  Muses, — "there's  a 
double  Benefit  will  accrue  from  having  various  Transla- 
tions of  so  Excellent  a  Piece,  (viz.)  That  (amongst  us) 
all  the  Beauties  of  the  Original  may  be  catcht,  with  perhaps. 


hill's  early  life  21 

a  heightening  Stroke,  in  some  Places ;  and  likewise  a  fuller 
Display  of  our  own  Language,  which  (after  all)  w^ill  be  of 
the  greatest  Service  to  You,  Auspicious  Youths,  when  you 
come  into  Public  Business."  The  chief  object  is  to  inflame 
the  blooming  glories  (the  young  men?)  of  Great  Britain 
with  a  love  of  classical  learning.  Tate  has  an  address  to 
the  reader,  acquainting  him  that  ' '  'twas  the  Usefulness  of 
this  Essay  that  prevailed  with  the  Ingenious  Gentleman 
concerned  with  me  to  perform  his  Part."  The  speech  of 
Ulysses  was  translated  by  Hill,  in  the  usual  heroic  couplets, 
smooth  enough  and  not  remarkable  in  any  w^ay.^* 

We  now  come  to  his  most  pretentious  work  thus  far — his 
Ottoman  Empire.  It  was  advertised  in  the  British  Apollo 
for  July  2,  1708:  "Whereas  the  present  state  of  Ethiopia, 
etc.,  in  folio,  with  cuts,  by  Mr.  Aaron  Hill,  should  have 
been  published  last  April,  but  was  delayed  for  filling  the 
subscriptions,  this  is  to  give  notice  that  the  copy  is  now 
sent  to  the  press,  and  that  the  author  will  speedily  advertise 
in  the  public  news."  But  it  was  not  until  the  following 
March  that  the  book  came  out,  with  a  dedication  to  the 
Queen.*^ 

There  are  fifty-two  chapters,  dealing  with  the  extent  of 

44  A  few  lines  may  be  quoted: 

"Here,  to  and  [sic]  end,  his  Speech  Great  Ajax  draws, 
And  rising  Murmurs  spoke  the  Camp's  Applause, 
Which  soon  th'  Appearance  of  Ulysses  drown 'd, 
Who  fix'd  his  Eyes  a  while,  upon  the  Ground: 
Then  to  the  lofty  Bench  his  Aspect  rais'd, 
And,  while  expecting  Crowds  in  Silence  gaz'd, 
With  Words  like  These,  He  acts  a  subtil  Part, 
And  dress 'd  his  Speech  in  all  the  Charms  of  Art." 
I  have  not  seen  this  book,  of  which  the  John  Eylands  Library  of  Man- 
chester, England,  has  a  copy;  but  I  have  photographs  of  the  title- 
page,  dedication,  and  some  pages  of  the  text. 

45  Advertised  in  the  Daily  Courant,  March  12,  170&,  and  in  the 
British  Apollo,  March  30,  1709. 


22  AARON    HILL 

the  Turkish  Empire,  the  Turkish  policy,  the  military  and 
civil  government  of  the  Turks,  their  religion  and  morals, 
their  trade,  their  wives,  their  funerals,  the  public  and 
private  buildings  in  Constantinople,  and  the  Grand  Sign- 
ior's  Seraglio;  the  Greeks,  the  Armenians,  Egypt,  Ethio- 
pia, the  source  of  the  Nile,  Palestine,  Arabia,  and  the  Red 
Sea.  The  book  concludes  with  two  chapters,  one  on  the 
probable  fate  of  the  Ten  Tribes  of  Israel,  and  the  other 
containing  instructions  for  the  traveller.  In  the  general 
arrangement  of  topics,  there  is  some  resemblance  to  Sir 
Paul  Rycaut's  Present  State  of  the  Ottoman  Empire 
(1668),  which  treats  of  the  manners  and  customs,  the  laws, 
the  religion,  the  military  forces,  and  the  political  maxims 
of  the  Turks.  So  far  as  Turkey  itself  is  concerned,  there 
was  probably  little  really  new  information  in  Hill's  work; 
in  the  discussion  of  the  different  religious  sects  of  the 
Turks  and  of  their  marriage  and  divorce  law^s,  and  in  the 
estimate  of  their  military  forces,  Hill  and  Rycaut  agree 
rather  closely.  But  the  chapters  on  Greece  and  the  Egean 
islands, — with  their  almost  Byronic  lamentations  over  the 
degeneracy  of  the  Greeks, — and  those  on  Egypt  and  Arabia, 
must  have  been  more  novel;  and  the  description  of  the 
great  pyramid,  which  Hill  explored  in  the  party  of  an 
adventurous  Bashaw,  who  defied  native  superstition  to 
enter  it,  is  very  interesting.  The  work  is  that  of  a  curious 
and  observant,  but  very  young  man,  eager  to  show  his 
learning  by  much  classical  quotation,  and  his  early  wisdom 
by  many  moral  reflections. 

The  book  is  illustrated  by  seven  plates,  each  dedicated  to 
some  member  of  the  nobility:  an  Egyptian  hieroglyphic*® 
to  the  Countess  of  Peterborough,  the  adventure  in  the 
catacombs  to  the  Earl,  a  Grecian  wedding  to  Sir  William 
Wentworth,  the  inner  plan  of  the  Seraglio  to  the  Countess 

46  The  interpretation  of  hieroglyphics  offcretl  no  diflSculties  to  IIUl. 


hill's  early  life  23 

of  Warwick,  the  outside  view  of  it  to  Lord  Paget,  a  Turkish 
funeral  to  Sir  Alexander  Cairnes,  and  the  picture  of  Turks 
of  quality  at  dinner  to  the  Duchess  of  Ormond.  These 
noble  names  indicate  one  reason  why  Hill  published  the 
book  by  subscription — his  connection  with  Lord  Paget, 
Peterborough,  and  the  Wentworth  family  evidently  made 
possible  the  securing  of  a  long  list  of  subscribers.^'^  Another 
reason  w^as  annoyance  at  the  booksellers:  having  printed 
some  few  little  essays  ''the  common  way,"  he  knew  the 
booksellers  and  was  far  from  approving  of  them ;  in  fact, 
he  intimates  that  Britain  could  produce  wretches  as  bar- 
barous and  sordid  as  any  he  ever  met  'vvith  among  the 
infidels.  They  presumed  to  claim  two  books  free  for  every 
six  subscriptions,  and  when  he  remonstrated  with  them, 
they  cried  down  his  book  in  every  way  they  could.  Not 
that  he  is  not  perfectly  willing  to  listen  to  fair  and  just 
objections  !  But  the  objections  he  has  heard  are  not  reason- 
able.    He  takes  them  up  in  his  preface. 

"Some  snarlers  do,  and  many  more  may,  cavil  at  the 
style  I  have  made  use  of,  and  the  weightiest  arguments 
they  bring  against  it  are  that  it  appears  affected  and 
elaborate ;  that  'tis  dressed  in  a  romantic  air,  and  that,  in 
short,  'tis  so  like  poetry,  that  it  runs  into  blank  verse 
measure  and  becomes  a  kind  of  prose-poetic  composition, 
...  As  for  its  being  dressed  in  a  romantic  air,  were  that 
malicious  accusation  full  as  just  as  'tis  absurd,  I  cannot 
see  the  reasons  why  it  should  be  looked  upon  as  an  ob- 
jection. Everybody  knows  the  language  of  romances  differs 
from  more  serious  writings  only  in  the  fine  descriptions, 
florid  speeches,  artful  turns,  and  winning  eloquence  which 

^'^  There  were  424  names  on  the  list.  Pope  had  575  subscribers  to 
the  Iliad.  Among  the  names  on  Hill 's  list  were  the  Queen,  the  Dukes 
of  Devonshire  and  of  St.  Albans,  the  Earl  of  Bath,  the  Marquis  of 
Granby,  Lord  Halifax,  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Ormond,  John  Gay, 
and  William  Fortescue, 


24  AARON    HILL 

are  made  use  of  to  adorn  and  recommend  a  feigned  rela- 
tion." And  if  these  ornaments  shine  in  a  feigned  account, 
why  not  much  more  in  a  true?  If  his  style  is  near  poetry, 
is  not  poetry  better  than  prose,  and  is  not  the  best  prose, 
therefore,  that  which  is  nearest  poetry?  "That  I  might 
not  alone  inform,  but  please  my  reader,  I  have  taken  care 
in  the  succeeding  sheets  to  introduce  as  many  stories  as  I 
could,  with  different  aims ;  for  some  are  moral,  some  divert- 
ing, others  melancholy,  and  of  all  kinds  some."  They  may 
be  called  digressions;  but  are  they  not,  like  the  moral  and 
occasional  reflections,  good  things  to  have? 

The  stories  are  sometimes  diverting  enough,  but  the  style 
is  often  still  more  diverting.  It  is  occasionally  easy  and 
familiar,  especially  when  it  addresses  itself  to  the  ladies : 
"Now  to  give  you  British  Ladies  an  enlivening  taste  of 
Turkish  arrogance  to  your  deserving  sex,  and,  let  you  see 
how  little  cause  you  have  to  grieve  that  we  possess  a  just 
and  mild  preheminence  by  Nature's  laws  and  those  of 
matrimony,"  he  translates  a  Turkish  song,  one  stanza  of 
which  reads, 

"  But  though  she  proudly  dares  rebel 
The  time  will  come  when  I  shall  see 
The  poor  inferior  wretch  in  hell, 
Not  worthy  once  to  look  on  me."  *^ 

At  other  times,  it  is  what  he  probably  called  poetical. 
Chapter  XIII,  on  Turkish  -wives,  begins:  "The  inimitable 
Virgil  was  undoubtedly  inspired  with  Love  and  Truth  when 
he  asserted  this  so  oft  experienced  maxim, 

*  Omnia  ^dncit  Amor,  et  nos  cedamus  amori.' 

The  roughest  heroes  of  the  ancient  world,  amidst  the  dusty 
scenes  of  war  and  ruin,  red  with  blood  of  undistinguished 
slaughter,  and  encompassed  round  ■nath  care  and  danger, 
48  p.  42. 


hill's  early  life  25 

often  slackened  nature's  springs,  and  sinking  calmly  from 
the  love  of  glory,  let  their  laurels  wither  on  their  heads, 
and  lost  the  sense  of  honor,  and  renown,  entirely  stupefied 
in  all  their  faculties,  and  slumbering  meanly  in  the  downy 
scenes  of  this  lethargic  passion." 

Hill  himself  later  looked  upon  all  this  with  very  dif- 
ferent feelings.  When  an  attempt  was  made  in  1739  to 
issue  a  pirated  edition,  he  begged  Richardson  to  do  some- 
thing to  stop  it :*^  "I  was  in  hopes  that  in  a  town  where  the 
best  things  I  am  able  to  write  are  so  little  regarded,  the 
worst  might  have  been  suffered  to  sleep  in  their  merited 
neglect  and  obscurity  ...  To  confess  the  truth,  I  was  so 
very  a  boy  when  I  suffered  that  light  piece  of  work  to  be 
published,  that  it  is  a  sort  of  injustice  to  make  me  account- 
able for  it."^*' 

49  Hill  to  Eicliardson,  December  19,  1739.  Eichardson 's  Corre- 
spondence, ed.  Mrs.  Barbauld,  I,  35. 

50  I  am  informed  by  Professor  Trent  that  in  Mercurius  Politicus  for 
May,  1720,  Hill 'a  Ottoman  Empire  was  mentioned  in  very  question- 
able company.  The  occasion  was  an  attack  on  Defoe 's  ' '  History ' '  of 
the  deaf  and  dumb  fortune-teller  Duncan  Campbell,  which  was  styled 
a  "wretched  Book,"  and  associated  with  "such  scoundrel  Books  as 
.  .  .  Robinson  Crusoe,  the  Travels  of  Aaron  Hill  Esq;  into  Turlcey, 
Psalmanazaar's  History  of  the  Island  of  Formosa,  and  the  more 
scandalous  Tale  of  a  Tub  .  .  .  Works  only  fit  to  lead  the  ignorant 
into  Error,  and  to  waste  the  Time,  and  deprave  the  Taste  of  such  as 
being  more  knowing  read  them  only  for  Diversion."  In  the  number 
of  the  same  periodical  for  July,  everything  that  had  been  said  against 
the  "History"  of  Duncan  Campbell  was  taken  back,  the  editor  having 
had  time  to  read  it  carefully.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  this 
editor  was  no  less  a  person  than  Daniel  Defoe,  the  biographer  of 
Campbell  and  of  Eobinson  Crusoe,  and  it  seems  clear  that  both  notices 
in  Mercurius  Politicus  were  designed  to  call  attention  to  his  newest 
book.  His  attitude,  therefore,  towards  Hill's  Ottoman  Empire  is 
scarcely  worthy  of  more  than  a  moment's  amused  attention.  He  is 
not  known  to  have  had  any  personal  relations  with  Hill,  but  he  appears 
to  have  had  some  sort  of  a  quarrel  with  Hill's  friend  William  Bond 
(cf.  post  chapters  IV  and  V),  probably  over  this  very  life  of  Duncan 
Campbell. 


26  AARON    HILL 

A  second  issue  was  published  in  March,  1710,  with  a 
preface  by  the  printer  Mayo,  announcing  that  he  had  pur- 
chased the  right  to  this  edition.  It  contained  commenda- 
tory verses;  one  of  them  speaks  of  Hill's  Aseanian  youth 
exhibiting  the  bounteous  product  of  Nestorian  years;  and 
another,  by  Marshall  Smith,  reads: 

"  Let  Heaven  point  out  a  man  like  thee,  possessed 
Of  all  the  charms  that  can  inspire  the  blest; 
A  scholar,  courtier,  poet,  and  divine. 
Historian,  traveller,  and  all  that's  fine." 

In  the  year  of  this  second  edition  Hill  married.  His  wife 
was  the  daughter  and  heiress  of  Edmund  Morris,  of  Strat- 
ford in  Essex,  and  the  marriage  was  apparently  a  very 
happy  one.  Of  the  nine  children,  only  four  lived,  to  bear 
the  names  of  Urania,  Astraea,  Minerva,  and  Julius  Caesar. 
The  marriage  marks  a  turning  point  in  his  life ;  for  it  pre- 
vented him  from  going  abroad  with  Peterborough  in  No- 
vember— his  wife  would  not  hear  of  the  trip  f'^  and  the 
fortune  it  placed  at  his  disposal  enabled  him  to  embark  on 
the  projects,  literary  and  commercial,  that  from  this  time 
on  filled  his  life.  So  varied,  numerous,  and  complex  were 
his  activities,  that  an  attempt  to  record  them  in  chrono- 
logical order  would  be  merely  confusing.  Only  by  group- 
ing them — into  commercial  schemes,  theatrical  enterprises, 
and  relations  with  other  literary  men — can  their  signi- 
ficance be  brought  out.  Broadly  speaking,  chronology  is 
not  so  badly  violated  as  one  might  expect  in  such  a  treat- 
ment; for  the  most  important  projects  occupy  roughly  the 
years  between  1712  and  1730;  the  most  important  work 
for  the  stage,  the  years  1730-1738,  though  much  has  to  be 
recorded  during  the  twenty  years  preceding ;  and  the  rela- 

51  Letter  to  Peterborough,  November  10,  1710.     JVorls,  I,  1. 


hill's  early  life  27 

tions  with  other  authors  extend  from  1725  to  1750.  In 
that  order  they  will  be  considered.  In  1710-1711,  Hill  had 
a  brief  but  interesting  connection  with  the  theatre,  best 
treated  with  his  other  theatrical  connections.  Then,  in 
1712,  he  turned  to  devote  himself  to  the  commercial  ad- 
vancement of  England. 


CHAPTER   II 

HILL'S   PEOJECTS 

Hill,  the  indefatigable  projector,  passed  his  early  man- 
hood in  an  age  of  projects.  The  time-spirit  of  that  age, 
easily  evoked  for  the  imagination  even  today  by  the  mere 
names  of  Mississippi  Bubble  or  South  Sea  Bubble,  was  one 
of  reckless  speculation.  The.  establishment  in  1694  of  the 
Bank  of  England  removed  one  restriction  that  had  fettered 
commerce — lack  of  capital ;  and  laid  the  basis  of  the  credit 
system — a  new  and  powerful  economic  instrument,  ready 
for  the  experiments  of  men  who  did  not  yet  understand  its 
use.  Then,  after  the  Revolution,  the  regulated  companies 
that  had  controlled  trade  gradually  sank  in  importance, 
and  left  an  opening  for  individual  enterprise.  As  small 
traders  found  it  possible  to  speculate  on  changes  in  the 
market  rates,  legitimate  business  became  more  and  more 
speculative.  The  system  of  joint-stock  trading  made  it  easy 
for  the  outside  public  to  share  the  gains,  without  sharing 
the  cares,  of  business.  "The  new  trades  which  were  being 
opened  up,  and  the  new  industrial  facilities  which  the  credit 
system  seemed  to  offer,  appeared  to  have  turned  the  heads 
of  many  of  the  men  of  that  day."^  The  vision  of  un- 
bounded wealth  had  all  the  compelling  power  of  the  earlier 
visions  of  political  and  religious  liberty.  Men  who  were  no 
longer  stirred  by  ideals,  over  which  the  last  two  generations 
had    fought,    were    excited    by    lotteries,    dazzled    by    the 

1  W.  Cunningham:  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  in 
Modern  Times,  4th  ed.  of  1907,  Part  T,  447.  For  the  characteristics 
of  this  period  see  also  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  Ill, 
and  Lecky,  Eighteenth  Century. 

28 


hill's  projects  29 

splendor  of  the  Mississippi  Bubble,  and  thrown  into  frenzy 
by  the  seemingly  unlimited  possibilities  of  the  vast  and 
little  understood  South  Sea  scheme.  Then  came  the  burst- 
ing of  that  gigantic  bubble.  The  fever  subsided,  leaving 
behind  it  a  distaste  for  projects,  which  extended  to  innova- 
tions of  all  kinds,  and  made  the  Walpole  era  conspicuous 
for  the  lack  of  public  spirit  and  public  enterprise. 

Yet  all  the  projects  before  1720  were  not  bubbles,  in- 
spired by  the  gambling  instinct.  There  were  projectors 
genuinely  interested  in  improving  the  condition  of  their 
countrymen  by  the  introduction  of  new  inventions,  the 
establishment  of  new  industries,  even  the  reform  of  social 
conditions.  One  need  only  think  of  Defoe,  and  of  some  of 
the  ideas  in  his  Essay  upon  Projects,'^  to  realize  how  near 
allied  the  projector  might  be  to  the  reformer,  and  both  to 
the  sane  and  practical  man  of  business.  To  the  more  dis- 
interested class  of  projectors — not,  unfortunately,  to  the 
more  practical — belonged  Hill.  His  devotion  to  inventions 
and  new  enterprises  was  not  to  be  affected  by  the  mere 
bursting  of  bubbles,  for  it  was  based  on  persistent,  if  not 
always  fruitful,  researches  in  chemistry,  physics,  medicine, 
agriculture ;  and  nourished  by  an  insatiable  desire  to  benefit 
somebody — or  rather  everybody — and  by  an  incurable  be- 
lief in  himself.  When  his  schemes  failed,  as  they  had  an 
unlucky  habit  of  doing,  he  deplored  the  loss  of  his  own  time 
and  money  much  less  than  the  loss  to  his  country  of  the 
good  he  was  firmly  convinced  it  was  in  his  power  to  bestow. 

The  most  opprobrious  epithet  Hill's  enemies  could  find 
for  him  in  later  years  was  *'beech-oil  projector."  The 
germ  of  his  famous  beech-mast  project — ^destined,  in  his 
own  opinion,  to  make  more  noise  than  any  discovery  in  the 
way  of  trade  for  ages  past — lay  in  an  incident  that  occurred 

2  Such  as  the  establishment  of  academies  for  women,  of  asylums  for 
the  feeble-minded,  and  so  on. 


30  *  AARON   HILL 

on  his  adventurous  journey  to  Turkey  in  1700.  On  his 
arrival  at  Naples  he  caught  a  severe  cold;  the  apothecary 
advised  oil  of  almonds,  and  the  boy  observed  with  interest 
the  process  of  beating  the  nuts  with  an  iron  pestle  and  then 
squeezing  them  in  a  wooden  press.  "A  few  days  after," 
to  quote  his  own  words,  "I  went  with  an  Italian  friar  to 
see  the  burning  mountain  Vesuvius,  the  cave,  the  grotto, 
the  tomb  of  Virgil,  and  many  other  rarities  of  that  cele- 
brated neighborhood ;  and  happening  one  day  to  take  a  by- 
road for  expedition,  we  crossed  a  very  large  wood.  ...  As 
we  rode  along,  the  boughs,  which  were  at  that  time  over- 
loaded with  full-ripe  mast,  hung  low  and  were  exceeding 
troublesome,  so  that  I  was  often  forced  to  bend  forward 
upon  my  horse,  and  to  make  use  of  a  strong  stick  to  guard 
off  the  branches."  He  ate  several  of  the  kernels  that  fell 
down  on  his  hat,  and  finding  the  taste  not  unlike  that  of 
almonds,  concluded  that,  if  taste  and  substance  were 
similar,  the  effects  of  pressing  almonds  and  beech-nuts 
would  be  similar.  So  he  pocketed  several,  dried  them,  and 
with  the  apothecary's  mortar  and  pestle  made  an  oil  that 
the  apothecary  himself  could  not  distinguish  from  that  of 
almonds.  So  far  Hill's  "natural  curiosity"  led  him;  he 
carried  some  of  the  oil  about  for  a  year  or  so  on  his  travels, 
and  then  forgot  the  incident.^ 

"In  the  year  1712,  some  affairs  of  no  great  consequence 
calling  me  into  the  west  of  England,  I  returned  about  the 
middle  of  September  from  Devonshire,  and  taking  no  direct 
road,  came  along  by  Henley  and  the  woodiest  part  of 
Maidenhead  Thicket,  where,  for  twelve  or  fourteen  miles 
together,  a  man  can  hardly  see  any  other  wood  but  beech."* 
Reminded  of  Naples  by  the  sight  of  the  mast.  Hill  resolved 
to  see  what  sort  of  oil  the  English  nut  yielded.     It  proved 

3  An  Account  of  the  Else  and  Progresn  of  the  Beech-oil  Invention, 
1715. 

4  Ibid. 


hill's  projects  31 

excellent.  He  experimented  with  it  for  various  uses:  the 
clothiers,  the  perfumers,  and  the  apothecaries  all  liked  it 
better  than  the  oil  they  used,  A  short  investigation  proved 
that  the  demand  for  oil  was  enormous.  Then  he  journeyed 
through  the  greater  part  of  twenty-two  counties  in  search 
of  beech,  and  found  in  the  least  of  them  enough  to  supply 
oil  to  three  kingdoms  three  times  over.  The  next  question 
was  how  to  raise  stock  to  develop  this  new  industry.  Opti- 
mistic as  he  was,  he  found  it  difficult  to  understand  why 
people  did  not  embrace  him  as  a  benefactor  to  his  kind,  and 
pour  out  money  at  the  first  hint  of  the  secret.  They  did 
not,  however;  they  treated  him  as  a  mere  borrower  of 
money  and  assailed  him  with  cries  of  "whim"  and 
''project."  He  saw  that  he  would  have  to  explain  his 
process  fully ;  and  in  order  to  do  so  safely,  he  took  out  on 
October  23,  1713,  a  patent  for  fourteen  years,  and  then 
published  his  first  proposals  in  January,  1714. 

In  this  pamphlet,^  Hill  gives  an  abstract  of  the  letters 
patent  granted  by  the  Queen  to  her  trusty  and  well-beloved 
subject.  Then,  after  a  few  reflections  upon  the  opposition 
every  new  proposal  meets  with  from  the  envious  and  the 
ignorant  (his  sentiments  on  this  head  expanded  into  elo- 
quence within  a  few  months),  he  states  that  there  are  many 
hundred  thousands  of  acres  of  beech  within  fifty  miles  of 
London;  and  one  bushel  of  mast  will  produce  two  gallons 
of  oil,  far  better  than  most  of  that  for  which  England  pays 
thousands  of  pounds  yearly  to  Portugal,  Spain,  and  Italy. 
The  new  discovery  will  give  better  oil  at  cheaper  rates  for 
the  soap  and  woolen  manufactures,*^  raise  the  rent  of  many 

5  A7i  impartial  account  of  ...  a  neiv  discovery  .  .  .  to  make  .  .  . 
oil  from  the  fruit  of  the  Beech-tree.    1714. 

6  Any  scheme  that  had  reference  to  the  woolen  manufactures 
touched  a  vital  question.  Defoe,  in  his  General  History  of  Trade, 
August,  1713,  speaks  of  their  preservation  as  the  great  concern  of  the 
nation;   the  French  run  every  risk  to  get  hold  of  English  wool,  and 


32  AARON    HILL 

estates,  employ  great  numbers  of  the  poor,  and  enable  Eng- 
land to  supply  other  nations  (like  Holland  and  Sweden) 
that  have  no  beech. 

All  possible  objections,  however,  shall  be  answered.  Some 
say  there  is  not  enough  beech.  Yet  Sussex,  Surrey,  Ox- 
ford, Berkshire,  and  many  other  counties  are  so  full  of  it 
that  a  horseman  'Can  scarcely  see  the  sun  through  the 
branches,  and  the  mast  hangs  like  ropes  of  onions;  right 
along  the  banks  of  the  Thames  are  woods,  "as  if  they 
courted  the  conveniency  of  water-carriage."  That  the 
price  will  be  too  high  for  profit  is  another  objection,  an- 
swered by  a  scale  of  charges  for  every  hundred  acres — 
labor,  carriage,  ware-housing,  and  so  on ;  the  cost  would  be 
less  than  eight  pounds,  the  sale-price,  thirty  pounds  a  tun. 
The  possibility  of  a  combination  on  the  part  of  the  owners 
of  woods  to  raise  the  price  of  mast  alarms  some  people,  but 
does  not  disturb  Hill.  Would  seven  or  eight  hundred 
gentlemen,  far  apart  from  one  another  and  unacquainted, 
maintain  a  malicious  league?  If  such  a  mad  alliance  were 
practicable,  there  is  enough  mast  in  the  unenclosed  woods 

the  prohibition  to  restrain  its  export  is  ineffective;  "unless  some 
speedy  method  be  taken  to  redress  this  grievance  ...  we  may  soon 
shake  hands  vrith  our  foreign  trade."  In  his  Appeal  to  Honor  and 
Justice,  1714  (vol.  VIII,  205,  of  Aitken's  edition),  he  says  that  were 
the  wool  kept  from  France  and  the  English  manufactures  spread 
there  upon  reasonable  duties,  the  improvement  the  French  have  made 
in  woolen  manufacture  would  soon  decay.  Even  the  philosophers  con- 
cerned themselves  with  the  subject:  Mandeville  (Essay  on  Clmrity 
and  Charity  Schools)  declares  that  it  is  not  the  smuggling  into  France 
that  is  ruinous ;  the  trouble  is  that  they  can  manufacture  more  cheaply 
because  their  labor  is  cheaper;  make  English  laborers  more  contented 
by  keeping  them  ignorant,  and  England  can  increase  her  exports  more 
effectively  than  by  sitting  still  and  damning  her  neighbors.  Hill's 
plan — to  make  the  manufacturing  cheaper  by  obviating  the  necessity 
of  heavy  imports  of  oil — has  more  of  humanity  and  social  justice  than 
Mandeville 's.  To  go  far  beyond  this  period,  Dyer's  Fleece  (1757) 
has  a  passage  in  Book  II  on  the  dangerous  smuggling  of  wool. 


hill's  projects  33 

of  France — where  their  olives  make  them  indifferent  to 
any  other  kind  of  oil — to  render  importation  profitable.  A 
letter  from  W.  Cecil,  at  Paris,  October,  1713,  is  quoted  in 
proof.  It  is  true  that  there  are  bad  years,  perhaps  two 
out  of  three;  but  mast  may  be  stored  without  deteriora- 
tion for  a  couple  of  years,  or  imported  from  abroad,  where 
the  trees  are  not  subject  to  "insulary  mutations  of 
weather. ' '  That  the  oil  will  not  keep  may  be  disproved  by 
a  very  simple  experiment:  expose  olive  oil  and  beech  oil 
together  for  a  day  in  the  sun ;  the  former  will  become  rank, 
the  latter  remain  good.  As  to  the  objection  that  the  stock 
proposed  will  make  more  oil  than  can  be  disposed  of,  Eng- 
land imports  perhaps  twenty  thousand  tuns  and  makes 
fifty  thousand  tuns  at  home  from  rape  seed ;  the  stock  will 
not  produce  one-twentieth  of  this  yearly  consumption.  ' '  I 
hope  I  have  said  enough,"  concludes  Hill,  "to  convince  any 
man  living  that  this  undertaking  will  be  very  profitable." 
Samples  of  the  mast  were  fastened  to  the  books,  with  in- 
structions how  to  test  its  oiliness  by  burning. 

The  stock  was  to  be  20,000  pounds,  one-fourth  down,  and 
the  rest  at  IMichaelmas,  1714.  Subscribers  were  to  receive 
an  annuity  of  50  per  cent,  upon  the  sum  subscribed,  to  con- 
tinue until  the  expiration  of  the  patent,  which  was  as- 
signed to  them  by  a  deed  enrolled  in  Chancery.  The  com- 
pany was  to  be  governed  by  nine  directors,  elected  by  a 
majority  of  the  subscribers  from  their  own  number;  and 
though  the  Patentee  was  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  board,  he 
might  be  removed  by  the  directors,  if  he  failed  to  give 
satisfaction.  "The  Oil  Annuity  Office  will  be  kept  at  the 
Patentee's  house,  against  the  upper  end  of  the  Duke  of 
Montague 's,  in  Great  Russell  Street,  in  Bloomsbury ;  where 
the  books  are  now  opened,  in  order  to  receive  subscrip- 
tions. ' ' 

As  a  patron  for  the  enterprise,  Hill  fixed  upon  the  Earl 
4 


34  AARON    HILL 

of  Oxford, — not  a  very  lucky  choice,  since  his  power  ended 
even  before  the  fall  of  the  Tory  administration  at  the  death 
of  the  Queen  in  July.  In  a  letter  to  Oxford  of  April  12, 
1714,''  Hill  admits  having  already  troubled  him  anony- 
mously before.  This  was  with  a  scheme  for  remitting  the 
land  tax  by  a  new  sort  of  contribution,  which  would  be 
paid  "insensibly,"  and  bring  in  a  revenue  of  four  millions 
yearly.®  Oxford's  failure  to  inquire  further  about  it  has 
deprived  us  of  the  details.''  A  year  later,  in  the  third 
beech-mast  pamphlet,  the  same  scheme  is  outlined  in  the 
same  terms,  to  be  more  fully  demonstrated  "if  I  have  the 
honor  of  a  vote  in  the  next  Parliament,  in  gratitude  to 
those  honest  burgesses,  who  were  lately  pleased  to  send  me 
up  an  invitation  to  represent  them,  under  the  common  seal 
of  their  corporation."^"  But  Hill  never  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  reveal  his  plan  in  Parliament.  The  letter  con- 
cerning beech-mast  was  thus  his  second  attempt  upon 
Harley.  With  a  sample  of  the  product  new  to  Britain,  he 
sent  a  sample  of  his  own  proficiency  as  poet  and  flatterer, — 
a  poem,  "no  more  than  an  honest  man's  poor  acknowledg- 
ment of  duty  inexpressible."  The  Dedication  of  the  Beech 
Tree  hails  the  happy  tree: 

7  Stowe  MSS.  143,  f.  128;  also  Sloane  MSS.  4253. 

8  See  letter  to  Oxford,  April  14,  1714,  Worls,  1,  3 ;  and  May  12, 
1714,  Works,  I,  7. 

9  There  were  probably  many  of  these  schemes  for  remitting  the  land- 
tax.  The  Examiner,  September  25,  1713,  advertises  proposals  for  an 
easy  tax  to  raise  two  or  three  millions,  in  room  of  the  land  tax,  to  pay 
the  public  debts. 

10  In  1711  a  bill  was  passed  that  all  members  of  Parliament,  except 
the  eldest  sons  of  peers  and  those  who  sat  for  universities  or  Scotch 
constituencies,  must  possess  landed  property,  the  borough  members  to 
the  extent  of  300  pounds  and  country  members  600  pounds  a  year, 
Lecky,  Eighteenth  Century,  I,  128.  That  Hill  was  considering  Parlia- 
ment at  all  indicates  that  he  had  some  property  at  this  time. 


hill's  projects  35 

"  Would  after  ages  know 
To  whom  their  sons  thy  oily  harvests  owe, 
Oxford's  loved  name  deep  on  thy  bosom  grave, 
Who  from  his  countiy  did  his  country  save; 

Whose  known  esteem  of  arts  gave  birth  to  thee. 
Omen  of  greater,  which  ere  long  shall  be." 

And  among  these  greater  things  are  several  of  Hill's  most 
cherished  projects:  the  teeming  glebe  is  soon  to  swell  with 
floods  of  generous  M^ine ;  that  "various  insect"  which  spins 
out  its  little  life's  industrious  thread — the  silk-worm,  in 
plain  terms — is  to  be  acclimated;  more  important  than  all, 
the  gummy  pine  in  Scotland  is  to  shed  its  pitchy  store,  and 
the  tall  firs  are  to  fright  the  seas.  Something  else  is  to 
happen,  too;  but  w^hether  the  last  lines  are  a  prophecy  of 
the  Suez  Canal,  the  Panama  Canal,  or  the  discovery  of  the 
Northwest  Passage,  I  cannot  decide;  perhaps  of  all,  for 
Hill  saw  many  visions  and  dreamed  many  dreams.  In  con- 
cluding his  letter,  he  humbly — and  vainly — requests  the 
honor  of  attending  on  Harley  in  some  unbending  moment. 
The  result  of  the  first  proposals  is  stated  in  the  second 
pamphlet,  published  in  May,  1714  :^^  the  20,000  pounds  was 
subscribed  in  ten  days.^-  But  it  happened  unfortunately 
that  1713  was  a  very  thin  year  for  mast;  it  was  not,  as  in 
1712,  hanging  on  the  trees  like  ropes  of  onions.  1714  was 
to  be  a  wonderful  year,  but  1715  would  again  be  poor.  In 
view  of  that  prospect,  therefore.  Hill  wished  to  increase  his 
stock,  in  order  to  lay  up  a  supply  of  mast  for  two  years. 
The  new  proposals  were  for  100,000  pounds  in  fifty-pound 
shares,  one-tenth  to  be  paid  down.     The  directors  increased 

11  The  proposals  are  advertised  in  the  Examiner,  May  10-14,  1714. 

12  An  advertisement  in  the  Englishman,  January  23^  1714,  states 
that  13,000  pounds  was  subscribed  in  nine  days,  "notwithstanding 
the  ridiculous  reports  and  mistaken  notions  which  have  with  so  much 
malicious  industry  been  spread  abroad  to  discourage  the  undertaking. ' ' 


36  AARON   HILL 

in  number  from  nine  to  thirteen,  were  to  be  placed  in 
possession,  without  charge,  of  the  granaries  on  the  Thames 
for  two  years;  all  expenses  of  operation  were  to  be  borne 
by  the  patentee,  in  return  for  his  one-tenth  of  the  purchase 
money;  with  the  other  nine-tenths,  to  be  called  for  as  the 
directors  should  appoint,  the  directors  were  to  pay  for  the 
mast  and  issue  such  quantities  to  the  patentee  as  he  re- 
quired, receiving  from  him  double  the  sum  they  had  paid 
for  it.  As  additional  security,  the  patentee  was  to  make 
over  to  the  directors,  before  Michaelmas,  the  work-houses, 
presses,  oil-works,  and  so  on,  with  the  power,  in  case  the 
mast  were  not  paid  for  in  two  years,  to  take  complete 
possession  wdth  all  profits,  except  what  was  due  to  the 
annuitants  on  the  first  proposals.  To  support  these  offers 
and  get  at  the  reasons  of  those  who  railed  at  him  in  the 
coffee-houses  as  a  projector.  Hill  resorted  to  a  persuasive 
dialogue,  between  Patentee  and  Country  Gentleman.  Most 
of  the  objections  disposed  of  in  the  first  proposals  are  in- 
corporated in  this  not  very  sprightly  conversation.  Among 
other  things,  the  Patentee  assures  his  interlocutor  that 
patents  do  not  encourage  monopolies.  At  last  Country 
Gentleman  exclaims,  "Why,  it  is  a  national  benefit  you 
propose  ! "     "  So  do  I  love  to  think  it, ' '  Patentee  replies. 

The  result,  despite  the  cavilling  of  the  envious,  was  the 
subscription  of  the  total  amount  in  a  few  days ;  and  there 
was  thus  a  capital  of  120,000  pounds,  with  two  sets  of 
subscribers  on  different  securities.  Hill  energetically  set  to 
work.  He  rented  granaries  and  provided  a  work-house  at 
Vaux-hall  on  the  Thames,  where  barges  from  Berkshire 
could  readily  unload ;  not  liking  the  machinery  of  the  rape- 
mills,  he  planned  a  new  engine,  capable  (as  any  engine  of 
his  would  be)  of  doing  "infinitely"  more  work  at  a  quarter 
of  the  expense ;  and  he  despatched  agents  over  England — 
especially  to  the  wool  manufacturing  counties — and  even  to 


hill's  projects  37 

Europe,  to  ascertain  the  demand  for  oil  and  the  supply 
of  beech  available.  During  June,  July,  and  August,  1714, 
these  agents  sent  in  weekly  reports  that  were  both  enthusi- 
astic and  specific,  though  the  enthusiasm  began  to  cool  a 
little  by  August.  The  demand  for  oil  was  indeed  great, 
but  there  was  a  blight  upon  the  beeches.  The  next  year, 
however,  was  to  be  marvellous — they  all  agreed  as  to  that. 
John  Brown,  who  journeyed  through  Kent,  Sussex,  Surrey, 
and  Hampshire,  in  September,  must  have  been  a  man  after 
Hill's  own  heart:  he  is  in  such  raptures  that  words  fail 
him  at  times.  "I  spoke,"  he  says,  "with  the  warreners. 
.  .  .  These  have  all  prodigious  tolls  of  beech  in  their  several 
limitations,  and  they  told  me  that  this  time  two  years,  the 
whole  forest  was  so  thick  with  mast  that  they  hung  like 
hops,  and  bore  the  branches  down  to  the  very  ground ;  and 
wiien  they  fell,  they  lay  so  thick  that  they  were  forced 
in  several  places  to  shovel  them  out  of  their  foot-paths. 
They  said  that  every  third  year  is  such  a  bearing  year,  and 
that  by  the  early,  thick,  and  most  prodigious  budding  of  the 
trees,  the  next  season  must  be  the  greatest  and  most  plenti- 
ful for  beech-mast  that  ever  was  heard  of."  The  reports 
from  Hamburg,  Paris,  and  Orleans  were  favorable. ^^ 

Nevertheless,  the  rumors  of  blight  alarmed  the  sub- 
scribers, only  too  ready,  no  doubt,  in  the  unsettled  state  of 
the  country,  to  be  uneasy.  To  have  to  explain  again  and 
again  that  there  was  enough  mast  in  England  to  keep  the 
works  going,  and  that  he  had  contracted  for  more  from 
abroad,  began  to  weary  Hill.  When  the  time  for  paying 
the  rest  of  the  subscription  drew  near,  he  announced  that 
those  who  were  dissatisfied  could  withdraw  what  they  had 
already  paid  in,  with  a  25  per  cent,  profit.  All  the  sub- 
scribers on  the  second  proposals  accepted;  those  on  the 
first  were  divided;  and  the  result  was  the  reduction  of  the 
stock  to  15,000  pounds. 

13  This  account  is  given  in  the  third  Beech-oil  pamphlet,  171.5. 


38  AARON    HILL 

Within  a  short  time,  Hill  had  another  set  of  proposals 
out.^*  These  he  prefaced  by  some  general  reflections  on  the 
attitude  of  the  public  towards  projects.  London,  it  is  true, 
has  suffered  so  much  from  projects  that  the  word  has 
become  "downright  scandalous."  But  there  is  a  distinc- 
tion between  project  and  discovery:  one  is  a  mere  notion 
having  no  real  or  visible  existence ;  the  other  is  a  fact  in 
nature  or  art  capable  of  demonstration.  His  scheme  be- 
longs to  the  second  class;  hence  the  folly  and  wickedness 
of  those  who  "stir  up  a  general  odium  against  a  devil  of 
their  own  raising  and  blast  the  credit  of  this  new  discovery, 
which  can  possibly  do  no  man  hurt,  but  on  the  contrary 
will  save  the  nation  millions  of  money,  and  give  bread  to 
many  thousands  of  families,  when  I  and  all  these  empty 
prattlers  shall  be  dust  and  ashes.  .  .  .  These  idle  busy- 
bodies,  these  tongue-champions,  who  like  a  drum  owe  all 
their  noise  to  their  being  hollow,  these  waspish,  stingless 
insects,  ought  to  know  that  the  guilt  they  practice  is  not 
only  a  misapplication  of  their  time,  and  a  prostitution  of 
their  reason,  but  an  act  as  base  and  villainous  as  breaking 
open  houses,  because  it  prevents  and  intercepts  a  blessing 
which  would  chiefly  fall  on  the  widow  and  the  orphan." 
England's  cunning  natives  are  always  sharpsighted  at  dis- 
covering impossibilities.  "To  refuse  to  be  convinced,  and 
then  conclude  a  thing  impossible,  is  like  winking  hard  at 
noonday  and  swearing  it  is  midnight." 

After  relieving  his  feelings  by  this  outburst,  he  discourses 
on  the  invention  of  useful  arts ;  blames  the  education  of  the 
day  as  too  little  practical;  and  promises  to  speak  more  at 
length  some  time  on  a  "College  of  Arts,"  to  train  youth  in 
the  knowledge  of  trade  and  manufactures.  Every  comfort 
we  have  is  due  to  some  earlier  project;  and  there  are  many 

14  Jn  Account  of  the  Else  and  Progress  of  the  Beech  Oil  Invention, 
etc.,  1715. 


hill's  projects  39 

profitable  secrets  yet  to  be  discovered.  "I  am  almost 
afraid  to  venture  such  a  declaration  among  the  disin- 
genuous tempers  of  mankind,  or  I  could  instance  and  dis- 
close some  six  or  seven  such  examples,  which  I  have  myself 
discovered  in  my  small  pursuit  of  nature,  as  might  animate 
the  dullest  clod,  and  would  perhaps  awake  the  sleepy  genius 
of  our  nation.  .  .  .  Not  that  I  am  sharper-sighted  than 
others;  such  discoveries  are  the  result  of  dowTiright  in- 
dustry, and  thinking  a  little  out  of  the  beaten  road."  One 
discovery  he  has  "lately  bestowed  on  an  honest  gentleman," 
who  will  soon  demonstrate  the  secret.  "But  to  what  pur- 
pose should  I  enumerate  these,  which  I  am  morally  assured 
the  invincible  stupidity  of  an  unthinking  age  will  rather 
turn  into  ridicule,  than  believe  or  make  the  proper  use 
of  ?  However,  if  they  serve  to  stir  up  the  fire  of  some  wiser 
man's  ingenuity,  my  country  will  be  benefited,  and  my 
design  has  succeeded;  I  pay  back  the  impudence  of  folly 
with  an  equal  weight  of  scorn. ' '  He  apologizes  at  the  end 
for  the  warmth  of  his  style — he  sometimes  forgets  that  he 
is  not  addressing  his  ignorant  slanderers. 

The  new  proposals  increased  the  number  of  directors  to 
twenty-five,  and  the  stock  to  200,000  pounds,  divided  into 
5,000  shares.  On  each  share  five  pounds  and  some  odd 
shillings  were  to  be  paid  to  Hill,  in  consideration  of  past 
charges;  forty  pounds  were  to  remain  in  the  company's 
hands,  to  carry  on  the  business;  out  of  each  forty  pounds 
w^as  to  be  deducted  a  half-yearly  payment  of  fifteen  shil- 
lings on  the  annuities.  "When  dividends  were  made,  the 
subscribers'  charges  were  to  be  repaid,  one-twentieth  of  the 
clear  gain  given  to  Hill,  and  the  remainder  divided  among 
the  subscribers  to  whom  the  patent  was  assigned.^^  A 
meeting  for  the  election  of  the  directors — one  of  whom 
must  be  the  patentee — was  to  be  held  March  5,  1715.     The 

15  The  Chancery  document  quoted  bears  the  date  December  20,  1714. 


40  AARON    HILL 

plan  has  great  advantages:  no  one  can  lose  more  than  the 
five  guineas  down ;  no  one  but  directors  chosen  by  the  sub- 
scribers themselves  can  call  for  more  money ;  in  a  bad  year, 
the  shareholder  is  liable  only  for  the  thirty  shillings  on  the 
annuities;  in  a  good  year,  the  profit  will  be  one  hundred 
and  sixty  pounds. 

But  the  good  year  did  not  come.  1715,  like  1714,  disap- 
pointed all  expectations  of  a  full  harvest.  A  final  pam- 
phlet, issued  in  November,  1716,  records  the  melancholy  end 
of  the  scheme.  Shareholders,  peevish  and  clamorous  at  the 
bad  year,  have  accused  the  patentee  of  faults  he  is  free 
from,  and  by  which  he  is  the  greatest  sufferer;  if  they 
looked  back,  they  would  remember  "how  often  he  publicly 
gave  leave  to  the  jealous  to  withdraw  their  subscriptions, 
and  paid  them  back  their  money,  when  forfeited  by  the  con- 
ditions 'twas  subscribed  upon;  they  would  remember  that 
w^hile  he  held  the  power,  there  were  no  complaints  of  non- 
payment, though  the  seasons  were  such  as  allowed  not  a 
possibility  of  making  a  profit."  He  is  not  angry,  being 
seasoned  to  ingratitude  and  not  perturbed  at  the  "sociable- 
ness  of  scandal. ' '  But  as  the  bottom  is  still  sound,  in  spite 
of  one  losing  voyage,  he  desires  to  lay  the  facts  before  those 
interested. 

About  one-fourth  of  the  annuitants^®  had  been  repaid, 
leaving  the  patent  charged  with  7,500  pounds  a  year  in 
annuities ;  the  second  and  third  proposals  had  been  accepted 
with  full  understanding  that  the  patent  was  so  charged, 
and  that  annuitants  were  always  to  be  among  the  directors. 
The  first  half-yearly  payment  (3,750  pounds)  was  made  by 
the  patentee,  and  never  charged  to  the  company.  As  the 
time  for  another  payment  drew  near,  Hill,  seeing  that  the 
directors  had  been  at  extravagant  expense  for  workmen  in 

i«  The  name  of  Edmund  Morris,  Hill's  father-in-law,  is  in  the  list 
of  annuitants. 


hill's  projects  41 

an  unusually  wet  season,  and  were  perplexed  by  the  non- 
payment of  money  on  shares,  for  which  they  had  called, 
contributed  20,000  pounds  of  his  25,000  guineas  as  a  loan ; 
and  then  proposed  to  the  board  the  union  of  sharers  and 
annuitants  in  one  body.  His  scheme  was  to  pay  back  a 
guinea  to  a  thousand  shareholders  who  had  not  complied 
with  the  calls,  thus  depriving  them  of  any  excuse  for  inter- 
ference, and  giving  to  the  company  the  disposal  of  the 
thousand  shares.  These  were  to  be  divided  among  the 
annuitants  ;^'  and  as  a  further  inducement  to  unite  with  the 
shareholders,  Hill  offered  his  right  in  reversion  to  the  10,875 
pounds  to  which  the  stock  was  then  reduced,  and  which  the 
company  had  in  possession.  All  but  five  or  six  consented 
to  change,^^  and  gave  their  warrants  in  trust  to  a  ^Ir. 
Kennedy,  a  director  for  the  annuitants  and  for  the  com- 
pany. He  did  receive  and  divide  the  second  half-yearly 
payment  and  the  thousand  shares ;  but  declared  that  the 
reversionary  security  of  10,875  pounds  remained  with  the 
directors ;  the  money  was  either  lost  or  spent — at  all  events 
not  in  existence  for  the  benefit  of  patentee,  annuitants,  or 
sharers. 

Where,  asked  the  patentee,  lay  the  blame?  He  had  ful- 
filled his  agreement :  he  had  put  the  annuitants  in  posses- 
sion of  his  right  in  reversion  to  the  stock  by  a  deed  enrolled 
in  Chancery,  and  had  entered  into  bond  under  a  fifteen 
thousand  pound  penalty  to  indemnify  the  company  against 
all  future  payments  on  account  of  annuities, — a  bond  that 
would  become  of  force  as  soon  as  the  stock  was  secured  to 

IT  Hill  calculated  that  with  these  shares,  and  the  3,750  pounds 
alread)^  paid  and  the  same  amount  to  be  paid  at  Michaelmas,  the 
annuitants  would  receive  eighty  pounds  for  every  one  hundred  they 
had  paid. 

18  On  the  ground  that  the  patentee  must  believe  in  the  profit,  or  he 
would  not  have  given  away  hig  twenty  thousand  pounds.  Of  course 
the  patentee  believed  in  the  profit! 


42  AARON   HILL 

the  annuitants.  But  the  board  did  not  fulfill  the  agree- 
ment. At  Christmas,  1715,  the  patentee  offered  to  take  on 
himself  the  hazard  and  power  of  the  whole  affair  (but  ac- 
countable to  the  board  for  the  money)  and  to  bind  himself 
to  pay  for  three  years  a  profit  of  forty  shillings  a  year  on 
every  share.  The  offer  was  rejected.  "Upon  which,  and 
many  other  provocations  afterward,"  he  asked  for  repay- 
ment of  500  pounds  lent  to  the  company;  but  they  denied 
the  indebtedness,  and  so  he  left  them  to  their  measures. 

It  is  evident  that  the  members  of  the  board  quarreled 
among  themselves.  Some  hot-headed  annuitants,  caring 
little  whose  fault  it  was  and  much  that  they  did  not  get 
their  money,  filed  a  bill  in  Chancery,  charging  the  patentee 
and  their  own  directors  with  a  scheme  to  defraud  them. 
Eventually  they  took  possession  of  the  patent  and  chose  a 
governor  of  their  own,  being  under  no  legal  obligation  to 
admit  the  sharers,  who  had  for  a  year  failed  to  pay  the 
annuities.  Hill  had  a  plan,  unnecessary  to  give  in  detail, 
for  reconciliation  and  reorganization;  but  they  probably 
did  not  even  consider  it.  "See  then,"  he  exclaims  at  the 
end  of  the  last  pamphlet,  "what  a  grateful  and  generous 
encouragement  may  be  expected  by  men  who  would  dedicate 
their  labor  to  the  profit  of  others!"^® 

Just  what  the  final  issue  was  is  not  evident.     Hill's  part 

19  According  to  tlie  facts  stated  in  the  last  pamphlet,  Hill  must  have 
given  back  at  least  23,750  pounds  of  his  25,000  guineas.  There  is  a 
reference  to  him  in  J.  Oldmixon's  Court  Tales  (1717),  p.  52,  that 
suggests  that  he  was  occasionally  in  hard  straits  about  this  time :  "  It 
was  no  wonder  to  see  the  fool  Baevius  (A-r-n  H-1)  in  his  gilt  chariot 
this  week,  and  the  next  staring  through  the  Counter-gates,  when 
Varus  (Steele),  a  man  of  wit,  set  him  the  example.  A  humor  which 
has  prevailed  on  more  wits  than  one,  whom  I  have  known  with  great 
pride  lolling  it  in  a  gay  chariot  in  May,  and  footing  it  with  as  good 
a  grace  in  December."  The  Tales  are  scandalous  stories  of  intrigue, 
and  the  reference  to  Hill  and  Steele  is  merely  a  passing  one;  probably 
it  ought  not  to  be  taken  too  literally. 


hill's  projects  43 

was  over;  his  patent  in  other  hands,  and  his  profit  clearly 
of  the  smallest,  if  any,  for  his  four  years'  expense  of  energy 
and  enthusiasm.  Of  the  causes  for  the  ill-success  of  the 
scheme,  the  most  obvious  is  the  failure  of  a  good  beech- 
mast  supply  for  several  successive  years.  Another,  no 
doubt,  lay  in  the  general  feeling  of  anxiety  over  the  polit- 
ical situation  and  the  rebellion  of  1715 ;  rumors  were  prob- 
ably credited  far  more  than  they  deserved.  Hill  did  what 
he  could  to  quiet  the  apprehensions  of  those  concerned  by 
putting  everything  into  their  own  hands — a  step  that  re- 
moved the  one  person  who  was  genuinely  interested  more 
in  the  profit  of  others  than  in  his  own,  and  turned  the 
management  over  to  people  with  conflicting  claims  and 
selfish  motives.  Doubtless  the  remembrance  of  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  he  had  made  his  unfulfilled  prophecies 
acted  as  an  irritant  on  those  who  had  credited  them.  Yet, 
a  soaring  confidence  was  so  vital  a  trait  in  Hill's  character 
that  his  contemporaries  might  have  been  expected  to  recog- 
nize it  and  make  the  necessary  allowances. 

Discouragement  with  Hill  was  never  of  long  duration ; 
the  failure  of  one  project  was  always  soon  followed  by  the 
launching  of  another  from  his  inexhaustible  supply,  just  as 
the  failure  of  a  play  or  poem  to  win  public  applause  was 
succeeded  up  to  the  last  by  consolatory  anticipations  of  a 
more  intelligent  judgment  from  posterity.  We  find  him 
next  engaged  with  a  "society  of  gentlemen"  in  a  plan  to 
publish  monthly  an  account  of  some  new  invention.  Pos- 
sibly he  was  himself  the  whole  society,  for  a  MS.  note  on 
the  title-page  of  the  British  Lluseum  copy  of  the  Essays 
reads  "by  Aaron  Hill,  Esq.";  but  more  probably  there 
were  others  concerned  with  him.-''  The  purpose  of  the 
society  is  stated  in  the  advertisement:  "All  who  would  have 
these  books  brought  monthly  to  their  houses,  paying  only 

20  Four  Essays,  etc.,  1718.     See  Bibliography  as  to  the  date. 


44  AARON    HILL 

a  shilling  for  each  book,  at  the  delivery  .  .  .  may  be  fur- 
nished with  them,  upon  giving  notice  to  the  beadles  of  their 
respective  parishes.  For  our  design  being  nothing  but  the 
public  good,  we  choose  that  way  of  spreading  our  essays, 
that  rich  and  poor  may  have  them  without  trouble.  .  .  . 
Throughout  the  course  of  our  design,  there  will  be  handled 
such  diversity  of  subjects  that  ...  it  will  produce  a  uni- 
versal solid  benefit,  by  which  there  is  no  rank,  profession, 
trade,  or  circumstance  of  life  but  will  in  some  part  or 
other  of  the  treatise,  be  particularly  .  .  .  interested  and 
advantaged. ' ' 

The  first  essay,  "in  respect  to  the  ladies,"  is  upon  china- 
ware.  Although  pottery  was  manufactured  in  Stafford- 
shire in  1690,  no  further  progress  was  made  in  England 
for  many  years ;  Josiah  Wedgwood  was  not  born  until  1730 ; 
1740-1745  is  given  as  the  earliest  date  for  the  established 
manufacture  of  porcelain  in  England;  about  the  time  of 
this  essay,  it  was  first  produced  at  Dresden  and  "Vienna. 
Thus  the  writer  was  not  overstating  the  case  when  he  said 
that  the  notion  was  commonly  held  that  only  in  China  and 
from  one  sort  of  soil,  buried  for  an  age  or  two,  could  fine 
chinaware  be  made.  He  was  perhaps  going  a  trifle  too  far 
when  he  asserted:  "We  shall  prove  this  report  to  be  noth- 
ing but  amusement,  by  instructing  the  most  ordinary  potter 
in  England  to  make  as  fine  china  as  ever  was  sold  by  the 
East  India  Company;  and  that  with  such  ease  that  it  may 
be  afforded  as  cheap  as  the  commonest  earthen  ware. ' '  Then 
follows  an  explanation  of  the  process  of  manufacture  in 
China.  To  reproduce  these  results  in  England,  all  that  is 
lacking — a  somewhat  serious  deficiency,  to  be  sure, — is  the 
earth ;  England  has  potters,  glaziers,  and  painters.  The 
essayist  is  firmly  convinced  that  tobacco  pipe  clay,  refined 
ad  infinitum,  might  serve.  But  an  easier  way  for  the 
present  is  to  buy  up  the  old  broken  china,  grind  it  with  a 


hill's  projects  45 

flat  stone  and  a  runner,  refine  it,  and  mix  it  with  quick-lime 
dissolved  in  gum-water ;  it  will  then  be  ready  for  the  potter. 
The  broken  china  will  not,  of  course,  last  for  ever,  but 
meanwhile  there  is  a  profit  in  the  undertaking.  And  if 
curiosity  is  sufficiently  aroused  by  the  success  of  the 
scheme,  people  may  look  about  them  and  discover  suitable 
earth  in  England.  In  that  event,  the  essayist  is  prepared 
with  an  "infallible,  easy,  and  cheap  way  to  discover  what 
different  bottoms  lie  under  all  lands,"  whether  marl,  chalk, 
or  clay.     The  method  seems  simple  enough. 

The  reason  for  ascribing  to  Hill  the  next  essay,  on  Coals, 
is  slight :  the  cut  illustrating  the  balls  of  fuel,  made  by 
mixing  broken  coal  and  Thames  mud,  is  precisely  the  same 
as  that  in  Sir  Hugh  Piatt's  Jewell  House  of  Art  and  Nature 
(1594),  a  heterogeneous  collection  of  inventions,-^  to  which 
a  passing  reference  is  made  in  the  second  beech-mast 
pamphlet.  The  picture  is  very  cheering:  a  drawing-room 
fire,  two  symmetrical  pyramids  of  cannon-balls  on  each 
side  of  the  hearth,  and  another  pyramid  burning  in  the  grate 
— like  ten  round  plum-puddings  alight.  The  essay  gives 
minute  directions  about  the  proportions  of  mud  and  coal, 
the  arrangements  with  lightermen  and  bargemen,  and  the 
process  of  working  together  the  ingredients  into  balls.  A 
bushel  of  these  culm  balls  is  worth  two  of  sea  coal,  and  costs 
about  one-third  as  much.--     The  Thames  "owse"  is  so  fat 

21  The  inventions  form  an  extraordinary  list,  from  how  to  prevent 
drunkenness  (the  method  is  not  the  simple  one  of  abstaining  from 
drink),  to  how  to  catch  pigeons  and  make  a  "pleasant  conceited 
chafing-dish."  This  earlier  projector  was  less  altruistic  than  the 
society  of  gentlemen,  for  he  refuses  to  reveal  the  secret  of  the  fire  in 
the  picture  except  upon  a  ' '  reasonable  consideration. ' '  In  1603, 
Piatt  published  a  tract  entitled,  ' '  Of  Coal-Balls  for  Fewell  wherein 
Sea  coal  is,  by  the  mixture  of  other  combustible  Bodies  both  sweet- 
ened and  multiplied. ' '     The  coal  was  to  be  mixed  with  clay. 

22  There  was  great  scarcity  of  fuel  in  England  at  this  time.  See 
Cunningham's  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  Part  I, 
523,  ed.   of  1907. 


46  AARON   HILL 

and  so  naturally  combustible  that  it  burns  with  a  ' '  striking 
liveliness"  for  six  or  eight  hours,  and  makes  no  foul  smoke. 
An  inexhaustible  supply  of  the  necessary  mixture  of  mud 
and  rushes  may  be  found  in  the  area  flooded  at  every  tide 
through  Dagenham  Breach. 

The  success  of  the  third  project — the  repair  of  Dagenham 
Breach — would  have  had  the  unfortunate  effect  of  cutting 
off  the  fuel  supply  on  which  the  success  of  the  second 
depended.  As  there  is  nothing  to  connect  Hill  particularly 
with  the  scheme,  it  may  be  passed  over.-^  The  last  essay 
in  the  volume  deals  with  the  manufacture  of  wine  in  Eng- 
land. This  was  a  favorite  scheme  of  Hill's:  he  mentioned 
it  in  the  Dedication  of  the  Beech  Tree,  and  he  attempted  to 
carry  it  out  twenty-five  years  later.  Several  passages  in 
the  essay  have  a  Hillian  stamp ;  for  instance :  "  It  is  a  re- 
markable flaw  in  the  genius  of  our  nation  to  distrust  new 
improvements," — a  truth  Hill  was  never  weary  of  pro- 
claiming. The  experience  of  a  farmer's  wife  in  Kent,  who 
found  a  sparkling  wine  in  place  of  the  verjuice  she  had 
stored  away  some  months  before,  convinced  "some  gentle- 
men of  our  society"  that  only  through  lack  of  industry  was 
England  without  wine  of  her  own.  In  fact,  six  hundred 
years  ago  wine  had  been  made  in  England;  but  the  Nor- 

23  Piles  were  to  be  driven  in  on  each  shore,  a  strong  float  made  of 
small  boats  fastened  between  them,  and  bricks,  manufactured  on  the 
spot,  rolled  to  the  float  in  wheelbarrows  and  dumped  overboard.  The 
force  of  the  tide  would  tend  to  spread  out  the  stones,  so  as  to  form 
a  solid  foundation,  and  to  fill  the  interstices  with  mud.  Whatever 
methods  were  adopted  were  not  very  successful.  A  notice  in  the  St. 
Ives  Post  Boy,  July  12,  1718,  states,  ' '  On  Thursday  seven  night  last, 
Dagenham  Breach  was  finished  and  stopt,  and  it  being  then  spring- 
tide, it  did  not  overflow,  and  'tis  hoped  it  will  withstand  all  storms 
and  tempests."  The  Post  Boy,  March,  1720,  advertises  for  laborers 
to  shovel  mud  into  the  Breach;  and  the  Weeldy  Journal  or  Saturday's 
Post,  November  18,  1721,  refers  to  Captain  Perry,  "who  lately  stopt 
Dagenham  Breach. ' ' 


hill's  projects  47 

mans,  wishing  to  make  the  country  dependent  on  the  wines 
of  France,  had  discouraged  grape  culture ;  at  least,  the 
writer  adds,  if  this  is  an  "imagination,"  it  is  not  an  im- 
probable one.  It  is  true  that  the  rainy  climate  of  England 
is  bad  for  grapes,  but  to  offset  that  disadvantage  the  winters 
are  milder  and  the  frosts  less  severe  than  in  France,  and 
there  are  no  hailstorms.  The  few  good  vineyards  that  even 
now  exist  in  England  would  succeed  better  if  these  direc- 
tions were  followed:  choose  a  light  gravelly  soil  and  a 
southern  exposure  upon  a  hillside ;  select  grapes  that  ripen 
early  and  have  small  leaves  to  admit  the  sun ;  plant  them 
in  long  shallow  trenches,  ten  feet  apart,  and  train  the 
higher  branches  on  a  low  wall.  The  cut  that  adorns  the 
essay  is  inspiriting :  we  see  the  vines  climbing  the  hill,  the 
laborers  picking  grapes  and  trundling  barrows,  and  the 
owner,  cane  in  hand,  taking  the  air  in  his  vineyard. 

This  was  the  pleasing  picture  Hill  tried  later  to  realize. 
One  of  his  chief  objects  in  removing  from  London  to 
Plaistow,  in  1738,  was  to  try  out  his  vineyard  theories.  He 
writes  to  Richardson,  April  12,  1739,-*  that  he  has  been 
"defying  the  sharpness  of  the  season  in  Essex  .  .  .  planting 
near  a  hundred  thousand  French  vines,  with  resolution  next 
year  to  extend  them  over  forty  or  fifty  acres  of  vineyard. 
For  knowing  perfectly  well  it  is  not  our  climate  but  our 
skill  which  is  defective,  both  as  to  managing  the  vines  in 
their  growth,  and  their  juice  in  its  preparation,  I  have 
judged  it  an  honester  service  to  my  country  to  establish,  if 
I  can,  the  success  of  so  considerable  a  branch  of  new 
product  to  her  benefit,  than  to  busy  my  cares  and  make 
war  on  my  own  quiet  by  a  fruitless  concern  at  [public] 
affairs."  In  September,  he  announces  that  of  the  cuttings 
put  out  in  i\Iarch  and  April,  few  are  less  than  five  or  six 
feet  high,  and  some  are  already  bearing  fruit.'^^     A  week 

24Eiehardson's  Correspondence,  ed.  by  Mrs.  Barbauld,  I,  22. 
25  September  21,  1739,  Correspondence,  I,  28. 


48  AARON    HILL 

later,  he  refers  to  a  serious  illness  contracted  by  "defying 
the  season";  but  he  hopes  to  be  well  enough  by  the  middle 
of  October  to  direct  the  making  of  about  twenty  hogsheads 
of  wine,  ripened  on  less  than  two  acres.-*'  His  hope  of 
recovery  proved  delusive,  and  the  vintage  had  to  proceed 
without  his  supervision.  A  year  later,-'  he  actually  des- 
patched a  sample  of  the  wine  to  Richardson  (who  had  no 
difficulty  in  restraining  his  enthusiasm  about  it),  but  the 
enterprise  had  obviously  not  succeeded.  The  reason  is  not 
far  to  seek.  The  marshy  situation  of  the  house,  which 
proved  extremely  injurious  to  the  health  of  the  entire 
family,  must  have  had  an  equally  bad  effect  on  the  grapes. 
For  wine  to  soothe  his  sick  hours,  poor  Hill  had  to  thank 
his  kind  friend  Richardson,  not  his  own  industry  and  skill. 
He  attempted,  indeed,  to  persuade  his  son  to  take  up  the 
work;  but  the  son,  a  very  unsatisfactory  person  altogether, 
was  not  likely  to  succeed  where  the  father  had  failed.-^ 

The  eagerness  Hill  displayed  in  some  lengthy  letters, 
about  1740,  to  William  Popple,  concerning  grape  culture 
in  the  Bermudas,  proves  at  once  his  preoccupation  with  the 
subject  and  his  discouragement  in  regard  to  English  wines. 
Popple's  brother  was  planning  to  go  to  the  Bermudas, 
where  another  brother  held  the  post  of  governor;  if  he 
would  only  plant  vineyards  there — a  plan  declared  practi- 
cable five  years  before  by  the  Board  of  Trade — he  would 
make,  Hill  was  convinced,  enormous  profits.  Hill  felt  him- 
self better  fitted  to  give  advice  ' '  than  most  men  in  England, 
where  we  are  sadly  defective  in  whatever  relates  to  a  vine- 
yard, every  circumstance  whereof  I  had  opportunities  from 
experience  abroad  and  long  and  obstinate  meditation  at 

26  Hill  to  Richardson,  October  16,  1739,  Forster  MSS. 

27  See  his  letter  to  Richardson,  September  17,  1740,  Correspondence, 
I,  43.  This  letter  contains  an  elaborate  explanation  of  Hill 's  process 
of  grape  fermentation. 

28  Hill  to  Popple,  November  12,  1740,  WorTcs,  II,  79. 


hill's  projects  49 

home  to  know  both  in  practice  and  theory."  The  ^ladeira 
wine  of  Bermuda,  if  made  according  to  his  directions,  would 
be  finer  and  more  saleable,  beyond  all  comparison,  than 
that  of  Madeira  itself.  These  letters  to  Popple  are  interest- 
ing in  their  way,  and  the  handling  of  certain  objections 
brought  forward  by  some  of  Popple's  Bermuda  friends, 
arrogantly  conscious  of  their  experience,  is  an  effective  bit 
of  argumentation.-^  Hill  had  some  reason  to  scorn  the  ex- 
perience of  the  colonial  planters ;  though  his  contempt  may 
have  appeared  at  the  time  to  be  that  of  the  enthusiastic 
theorist  for  mere  facts,  subsequent  events  justified  it  in 
several  instances.  Don't  expect  new  lights,  he  says,^°  from 
the  planters  and  traders;  "our  mother  country,  God  bless 
her,  among  the  rest  of  her  rights  and  immunities,  has  had 
the  privilege  from  time  immemorial  to  declare  and  believe 
all  things  impracticable,  till  they  have  been  proved  easy  by 
the  adventure  of  others."  For  instance,  the  English  in 
Jamaica  would  not  believe  that  coffee  could  be  grown  there, 
till  they  saw  it  done  by  the  French,  under  their  noses; 
"then,  indeed,  like  the  four-footed  supporters  of  our  woolen 
manufacture,  they  trooped  quietly  after  their  leaders." 
For  twenty  years  past,  he  has  been  trying  to  "persuade  a 
wooden  head  or  two  in  the  south  of  Carolina"  to  plant 
sugar-cane.  The  failure  of  one  experiment,  made  under 
unfavorable  conditions,  convinced  them  that  Carolina  was 
too  cold,  despite  all  proof  of  the  success  of  sugar-planting 
in  still  colder  climates.  "So  they  will  continue  to  think, 
till  some  Frenchman  of  the  settlements  at  their  back  makes 
it  a  common  return  from  those  colonies;  and  then  we  shall 
have  them  gravely  petitioning  Parliament  for  some  aid  in 
relief  of  their  ignorance."     It  did  turn  out  as  he  antici- 

29  The  letters  to  Popple  are  dated  November  30,  1740  ( Worlcs,  II, 
82),  December  8  (II,  91),  December  18  (II,  100),  and  Jamiary  1, 
1741  (II.  108). 

soXovember  30,  1740. 

5 


50  AARON    HILL 

pated:  sugar-cane  was  first  cultivated  by  Jesuits  near  the 
site  of  New  Orleans,  about  1751,  and  it  was  a  staple 
product  there  before  it  began  to  be  grown  to  any  extent  in 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia.^^ 

Hill  had  once  had  more  extensive  plans  in  regard  to  the 
land  south  of  Carolina  than  the  mere  cultivation  of  grapes 
or  sugar-cane.  On  June  19,  1717,  Sir  Kobert  Montgomery, 
of  Skelmorley  in  Ayre,  obtained  from  the  Palatine  (Lord 
Carteret)  and  the  Lords  Proprietors  of  Carolina  a  grant 
for  himself  and  his  heirs  and  assigns  of  the  land  between 
the  rivers  Alatamaha  and  Savannah,  with  liberty  to  settle 
south  of  the  Alatamaha.  The  grant  erected  the  district 
into  an  independent  province,  to  be  called  the  Margravate 
of  Azilia;  courts  were  to  be  established,  laws  enacted  by  a 
Public  Assembly,  and  Sir  Robert  himself  was  to  be  ap- 
pointed governor  for  life.  The  Proprietors  were  to  receive, 
in  addition  to  a  yearly  quit-rent  of  one  penny  sterling  an 
acre,  one-fourth  of  the  gold  and  silver  ore  taken  from  the 
hills  of  Azilia.  "In  consideration  of  all  which  powers, 
rights,  privileges,  prerogatives,  and  franchises.  Sir  Robert 
shall  transport,  at  his  own  expense,  a  considerable  number 
of  families,  with  all  necessaries  for  making  a  new  settle- 
ment in  the  said  tract  of  land;  and  in  case  it  be  neglected 

31  The  Plain  Dealer,  No.  99,  March  1,  1725,  reflects  Hill 's  views  of 
the  open-mindedness  of  those  in  charge  of  colonial  affairs:  the  agent 
of  an  American  colony  is  represented  as  uttering  the  pious  wish  that 
the  gentlemen  in  charge  of  the  trade  of  the  Colonies  might  be  pro- 
moted to  the  peerage — an  office  of  less  trouble  than  their  present  one 
and  more  in  proportion  to  their  abilities;  he  goes  on  with  ironical 
comments  upon  their  experience  and  their  vigor  in  forwarding  move- 
ments for  the  encouragement  of  their  countrjnnen  abroad ;  in  illus- 
tration, he  tells  of  a  Turkish  sultan  who  sent  several  sages  to  en- 
courage the  industries  in  Egypt ;  they  refused  to  remit  certain  taxes 
to  the  cotton  planters,  whose  crops  had  suffered  in  an  inundation,  on 
the  ground  that  they  should  have  sown  something  that  would  not  have 
been  hurt  by  water — wool,  for  instance. 


hill's  projects  51 

for  the  space  of  three  years  from  the  date  of  this  grant, 
the  grant  shall  become  void,  anything  herein  contained  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding." 

His  grant  secured,  Sir  Robert  published  his  proposals,  to 
attract  the  capital  necessary  for  the  new  settlement.^-  He 
was  himself  well-fitted  to  write  a  prospectus :  he  had  a  fine 
imagination,  unembarrassed  by  facts;  and  he  had,  too,  a 
sort  of  ancestral  experience  in  colonization,  for  his  father 
had  accompanied  Lord  Cardross  on  the  ill-fated  expedition 
to  establish  a  military  station  near  Port  Royal  in  1682.^^ 
A  "colonizing  humor,"  as  he  said,  ran  in  his  blood.  But 
there  were  other  equally  imaginative  and  experienced 
gentlemen  ready  to  assist  him — among  them  Aaron  Hill. 
Hill's  share  in  the  prospectus  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  the 
glowing  promise  of  large  profits,  to  arise,  during  the  very 
first  year  of  the  settlement,  from  the  manufacture  of  potash 
according  to  a  new  and  cheap  method.  Hill  and  potash  are 
inseparably  linked  by  his  biographers:^*  he  experimented 
with  his  method  in  Scotland  and  at  Plaistow,  but  his  profits 
w^ere  all  on  paper,  and  his  secret  died  with  him.  Aided,  no 
doubt,  by  Hill's  vision,  Montgomery  pictured  an  Eden 
south  of  the  Savannah.  "It  lies  in  the  same  latitude  with 
Palestine  herself,  that  promised  Canaan  which  was  pointed 
out  by  God's  own  choice  to  bless  the  labors  of  a  favorite 
people.  It  abounds  with  rivers,  woods,  and  meadows.  Its 
gentle  hills  are  full  of  mines, — lead,  copper,  iron,  and  even 
some  of  silver;  'tis  beautiful  with  odoriferous  plants,  green 
all  the  year.     Pine,  cedar,  cypress,  oak,  elm,  ash,  or  walnut, 

3- A  Discourse  concerning  the  design'd  estaMishment  of  a  new 
Colony  to  the  South  of  Carolina,  etc.,  London,  1717.  Eeprinted  in 
American  Colonial  Tracts,  vol.  I,  May,  1897.  The  grant  is  quoted  in 
the  Discourse. 

33  The  colony  was  destroyed  by  Spaniards  in  1686. 

34  See  Gibber's  Lives,  V,  271;  and  the  life  by  "I.  K."  in  IliU's 
Dramatic  Worls,  I. 


52  AARON    HILL 

with  innumerable  other  sorts,  .  .  .  grow  everjrvvhere  so 
pleasantly  that  though  they  meet  at  top  and  shade  the 
traveller,  they  are  at  the  same  time  so  distant  in  their 
bodies  and  so  free  from  underwood  or  bushes  that  the  deer 
and  other  game,  which  feed  in  droves  along  these  forests, 
may  be  often  seen  half  a  mile  between  them."  The  soil  is 
so  fertile  that  orchards  are  raised  merely  to  feed  pigs 
withal.  "Paradise,  with  all  her  virgin  beauties,  may  be 
modestly  supposed  at  most  but  equal  to  its  native  excellence. 
.  .  .  Nor  is  this  tempting  country  yet  inhabited,  except 
those  parts  in  the  possession  of  the  English,  unless  by  here 
and  there  a  tribe  of  wandering  Indians,  wild  and  ignorant, 
all  artless  and  uncultivated  as  the  soil  which  fosters  them. ' ' 
The  most  sanguine  of  promoters  could  not  quite  ignore 
the  fact  that  the  artless  Indians  had  within  the  last  two 
years  made  South  Carolina  as  little  as  possible  like  Para- 
dise. Even  Montgomery  admits  that  the  "unformidable 
Indians"  have  taken  advantage  of  the  undefended  position 
of  some  isolated  communities ;  but  he  will  avoid  that  danger 
by  enclosing  his  settlements  within  military  lines.  The 
defense  of  each  district  is  to  be  entrusted  to  men  who  will 
employ  their  odd  moments  in  Indian  warfare,  and  the 
greater  part  of  their  time  in  cultivating  the  land  just  within 
the  outer  walls.^^  A  plan  reveals  one  district  of  Azilia  in 
the  ' '  fulness  of  her  beauty ' ' :  the  one  hundred  and  sixteen 
squares,  each  with  its  little  house,  the  city  at  the  centre, 
the  four  large  parks,  the  hunters  shooting  game,  the  laborers 
peacefully  at  work,  and  the  guns  trained  upon  possible 
Indians  somewhere  outside  of  the  picture, — all  combine  to 
create  a  most  pleasant  impression  of  Azilia. 

35  There  were  to  be  no  "dangerous  Blackamoors"  admitted  into 
the  colony;  laborers  were  to  go  over  on  a  contract,  and  to  receive  a 
gift  of  land  upon  the  expiration  of  their  term'  of  service.  The 
experiment  of  doing  without  slave  labor  was  of  course  tried  during 
the  early  years  of  the  colony  of  Georgia. 


hill's  projects  53 

Sir  Robert  offered  land  in  the  new  province  at  forty 
shillings  an  acre.  The  purchasers  became  in  effect  share- 
holders, who  received  the  profits  of  the  land  as  dividends ; 
and  upon  the  least  breach  of  Sir  Robert's  contract  with 
them,  they  were  empowered  to  take  possession  of  the 
province.  Subscribers  were  found  on  these  terms,  for  in 
February,  1718,  Sir  Robert  stated  that  he  had  already 
raised  thirty  thousand  pounds  among  his  friends. 

But  a  more  unpromising  moment  for  the  execution  of  the 
scheme  could  scarcely  have  been  found.  The  Proprietary 
Government  was  already  tottering.  The  Proprietors  had 
recently  been  forced  to  admit  their  inability  to  defend  the 
province  against  Indian  and  Spanish  attacks,  and  the 
colonists  had  appealed  to  the  king  for  help.  The  Crown 
was  jealously  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  assume  con- 
trol. In  so  delicate  a  situation,  the  Proprietors  felt  it  ad- 
visable to  have  the  royal  approval  of  their  grant  to  Sir 
Robert  Montgomery,  and  accordingly,  in  July,  1717,  they 
submitted  it  to  the  king.  He  referred  the  matter  to  the 
Lords  Commissioners  for  Trade,  and  they  in  due  time  con- 
sulted the  Attorney  General.  It  was  his  opinion  that  there 
was  nothing  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  Crown  in 
the  grant,  but  he  doubted  whether  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment possessed  by  the  Proprietors  could  be  divided  by  them 
so  as  to  exempt  the  new  province  from  liability  to  the  laws 
of  South  Carolina.  A  month  later  (April,  1718),  a  repre- 
sentation to  the  king,  signed  by  Charles  Cooke  and  three 
others,  suggested  that  the  Proprietors  surrender  their 
powers  of  government  over  the  new  province  to  the  king, 
who  could  then  appoint  Montgomery  governor.  This  they 
were  apparently  unwilling  to  do,  and  the  scheme  lan- 
guished.^*' 

36  The  Collections  of  the  Historical  Society  of  South  Carolina  con- 
tains lists  and  abstracts  of  the  papers  relating  to  South  Carolina  in 


52  AARON    HILL 

with  innumerable  other  sorts,  .  .  .  grow  everywhere  so 
pleasantly  that  though  they  meet  at  top  and  shade  the 
traveller,  they  are  at  the  same  time  so  distant  in  their 
bodies  and  so  free  from  underwood  or  bushes  that  the  deer 
and  other  game,  which  feed  in  droves  along  these  forests, 
may  be  often  seen  half  a  mile  between  them."  The  soil  is 
so  fertile  that  orchards  are  raised  merely  to  feed  pigs 
withal.  "Paradise,  with  all  her  virgin  beauties,  may  be 
modestly  supposed  at  most  but  equal  to  its  native  excellence. 
.  .  .  Nor  is  this  tempting  country  yet  inhabited,  except 
those  parts  in  the  possession  of  the  English,  unless  by  here 
and  there  a  tribe  of  wandering  Indians,  wild  and  ignorant, 
all  artless  and  uncultivated  as  the  soil  which  fosters  them. ' ' 
The  most  sanguine  of  promoters  could  not  quite  ignore 
the  fact  that  the  artless  Indians  had  within  the  last  two 
years  made  South  Carolina  as  little  as  possible  like  Para- 
dise. Even  Montgomery  admits  that  the  "unformidable 
Indians"  have  taken  advantage  of  the  undefended  position 
of  some  isolated  communities ;  but  he  will  avoid  that  danger 
by  enclosing  his  settlements  within  military  lines.  The 
defense  of  each  district  is  to  be  entrusted  to  men  who  will 
employ  their  odd  moments  in  Indian  warfare,  and  the 
greater  part  of  their  time  in  cultivating  the  land  just  within 
the  outer  walls.^^  A  plan  reveals  one  district  of  Azilia  in 
the  ' '  fulness  of  her  beauty ' ' :  the  one  hundred  and  sixteen 
squares,  each  with  its  little  house,  the  city  at  the  centre, 
the  four  large  parks,  the  hunters  shooting  game,  the  laborers 
peacefully  at  work,  and  the  guns  trained  upon  possible 
Indians  somewhere  outside  of  the  picture, — all  combine  to 
create  a  most  pleasant  impression  of  Azilia. 

35  There  were  to  be  no  "dangerous  Blackamoors"  admitted  into 
the  colony;  laborers  were  to  go  over  on  a  contract,  and  to  receive  a 
gift  of  land  upon  the  expiration  of  their  term  of  service.  The 
experiment  of  doing  without  slave  labor  was  of  course  tried  during 
the  early  years  of  the  colony  of  Georgia. 


hill's  projects  53 

Sir  Robert  offered  land  in  the  new  province  at  forty 
shillings  an  acre.  The  purchasers  became  in  effect  share- 
holders, who  received  the  profits  of  the  land  as  dividends; 
and  upon  the  least  breach  of  Sir  Robert's  contract  with 
them,  they  were  empowered  to  take  possession  of  the 
province.  Subscribers  were  found  on  these  terms,  for  in 
February,  1718,  Sir  Robert  stated  that  he  had  already 
raised  thirty  thousand  pounds  among  his  friends. 

But  a  more  unpromising  moment  for  the  execution  of  the 
scheme  could  scarcely  have  been  found.  The  Proprietary 
Government  was  already  tottering.  The  Proprietors  had 
recently  been  forced  to  admit  their  inability  to  defend  the 
province  against  Indian  and  Spanish  attacks,  and  the 
colonists  had  appealed  to  the  king  for  help.  The  Crown 
was  jealously  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  assume  con- 
trol. In  so  delicate  a  situation,  the  Proprietors  felt  it  ad- 
visable to  have  the  royal  approval  of  their  grant  to  Sir 
Robert  Montgomery,  and  accordingly,  in  July,  1717,  they 
submitted  it  to  the  king.  He  referred  the  matter  to  the 
Lords  Commissioners  for  Trade,  and  they  in  due  time  con- 
sulted the  Attorney  General.  It  was  his  opinion  that  there 
was  nothing  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  Crown  in 
the  grant,  but  he  doubted  whether  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment possessed  by  the  Proprietors  could  be  divided  by  them 
so  as  to  exempt  the  new  province  from  liability  to  the  laws 
of  South  Carolina.  A  month  later  (April,  1718),  a  repre- 
sentation to  the  king,  signed  by  Charles  Cooke  and  three 
others,  suggested  that  the  Proprietors  surrender  their 
powers  of  government  over  the  new  province  to  the  king, 
who  could  then  appoint  Montgomery  governor.  This  they 
were  apparently  unwilling  to  do,  and  the  scheme  lan- 
guished.^*^ 

36  The  Collections  of  the  Historical  Society  of  South  Carolina  con- 
taius  lists  and  abstracts  of  the  papers  relating  to  South  Carolina  in 


54  AARON    HILL 

A  few  months  later,  Sir  Robert,  having  discovered  that 
the  protection  of  his  colony  from  the  '"poor  unskilful 
natives  of  America ' '  would  put  him  to  greater  expense  than 
he  had  anticipated,  petitioned  the  king  to  grant  a  lottery 
under  the  Scotch  seal,  to  provide  him  with  funds.  The 
Attorney  General,  to  whom  the  petition  was  referred, 
agreed  with  Sir  Robert  that  the  act  against  lotteries  in  Eng- 
land was  probably  not  binding  in  Scotland,  since  it  had 
been  passed  prior  to  the  Union.^'^  But  the  request  was  ap- 
parently denied.^^ 

The  next  news  of  Azilia  is  that  Hill  has  purchased  the 
grant.  "It  is  sometime,"  he  writes  in  1718,^^  to  some  un- 
named influential  lord,  "since  I  became  concerned  with 
Sir  Robert  Montgomery  and  some  other  gentlemen  in  a 
design  to  settle  a  new  plantation  of  his  Majesty's  subjects 
to  the  south  of  Carolina;  the  whole  intent  of  which  will  be 
justly  apprehended  by  your  lordship,  on  perusal  of  the  en- 
closed little  treatise,  which  Sir  Robert  made  public,  with 
less  success  than  he  expected;  upon  which,  and  some  other 
views  which  fell  in  his  way,  he  declined  any  further  en- 
deavors for  advancement  of  the  colony  proposed;  and  I 

the  old  State  Paper  Office  at  London.  The  progress  of  Montgomery's 
scheme  may  be  traced  in  the  following  references:  I,  189;  II,  232, 
234,  255,  256.  For  the  situation  in  the  province  at  this  time  see 
E.  McCrady:  Hist,  of  South  Carolina  wider  the  Proprietary  Gov. 
1670-1719,  575  f. 

37  The  date  of  the  document  quoted  in  A  Description  of  the  Golden 
Islands  (1720)  is  November  15;  as  reference  is  made  in  it  to  the  ap- 
proval of  Sir  Robert's  scheme  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  as  their 
approval  was  expressed  in  February,  1718,  the  year  is  probably  1718. 

38  The  plan  was  to  draw  out  100,000  tickets,  at  40  shillings  apiece; 
the  fund  was  to  be  kept  by  some  bank  or  society  of  general  credit, 
and  a  deduction  of  not  more  than  15  per  cent,  to  be  made  on  all  prizes 
and  applied  to  the  Azilia  scheme.  The  lottery  was  to  be  drawn  in 
Edinburgh. 

30  Worlds,  1753,  II,  187  f. 


hill's  projects  55 

bought  his  grant  of  him  with  a  firm  resolution  to  pursue 
the  design  by  myself."  He  goes  on  to  explain  how,  in  a 
recent  attempt  "to  improve  one  of  our  natural  advantages, 
...  I  erred  in  the  choice  of  my  means,  and  met  with  dis- 
appointments which  have  made  it  necessary  (for  the  sake 
of  my  family)  that  I  endeavor  to  repair  a  large  breach  in 
my  fortune ;  and  I  would  do  it,  if  possible,  the  noblest  way, 
by  owing  any  future  prosperity  of  mine  to  some  benefit  I 
procure  to  my  country."  He  points  out  some  of  the  pros- 
pective benefits :  the  English  trade  with  Spain  is  threatened 
by  the  attempts  of  the  French  to  establish  communication 
between  the  Lakes  and  the  Gulf ;  they  already  have  a  colony 
on  the  Gulf  and  a  chain  of  forts  along  the  Mississippi; 
through  this  midland  channel  they  will  be  able  to  reach 
the  Spanish  market,  and  it  will  then  be  vain  to  exclude  them 
from  the  South  Sea  trade.  Since  the  grant  permits  an 
indefinite  extension  of  the  boundaries  to  the  south  and  west, 
Hill  suggests  that  a  settlement  be  established,  for  the 
purpose  of  watching  the  designs  of  the  French,  somewhere 
on  the  river  of  "Apalachia."*'^  To  meet  the  expense  of 
equipping  the  five  hundred  men  needed  for  such  an  expedi- 
tion, Hill  appeals — in  almost  the  precise  terms  of  Mont- 
gomery's petition — for  the  privilege  of  a  lottery  under  the 
Scotch  seal.  Will  his  lordship  use  his  influence?  Hill's 
appeal  had  no  more  success  than  Montgomery's.  The 
reason  for  their  failure  is  perhaps  sufficiently  explained  by 
a  passage  in  INIacpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce, '^'^  under 

40  Hill  evidently  means  the  river  Appalachicola,  or  one  of  its  tribu- 
taries, flowing  into  the  Gulf.  On  the  map,  his  plan  of  sending  his 
colonists  by  land  from  the  Alatamaha  to  an  upper  branch  of  this 
waterway  looks  feasible  enough;  but  the  character  of  the  country — 
whether  swampy  or  heavily  wooded  or  otherwise  difficult  of  passage — 
probably  did  not  enter  into  his  calculations  much  more  than  did  danger 
from  the  Indians. 

41  III,   63. 


56  AARON    HILL 

the  year  1718 :  "The  selling  or  buying  of  chances  and  parts 
of  chances  of  tickets  in  the  state  lotteries  of  Great  Britain 
being  at  this  time  in  general  practise,  a  clause  in  an  act  of 
Parliament  for  continuing  certain  duties  on  coals  and  culm, 
etc.,  prohibited  such  practises;  and  also  all  undertakings 
resembling  lotteries,  or  being  on  the  footing  of  a  state 
lottery,  were  strictly  prohibited  under  the  penalty  of  100 
pounds  over  and  above  all  penalties  enjoined  by  former 
acts  of  Parliament  against  private  lotteries."  In  other 
words,  just  when  the  necessities  of  Azilia  demanded  a 
lottery,  the  laws  against  the  practice  were  made  more 
stringent. 

There  must  have  been  conditions  attached  to  Hill's  pur- 
chase which  were  not  fulfilled;  for  when  Azilia  reappears, 
it  is  Sir  Robert's  name  that  is  still  connected  with  the 
grant.*-  To  the  dream  of  a  Paradise  on  the  mainland  suc- 
ceeded a  vision,  no  less  entrancing,  of  the  Golden  Islands — 
a  vision  seen  by  both  Montgomery  and  Hill  in  the  Bubble 
year.  In  October,  1720,  shortly  after  the  South  Sea  crash, 
appeared  a  pamphlet  entitled,  A  Description  of  the  Golden 
Islands,  with  an  Account  of  the  Undertaking  now  on  foot 
for  making  a  Settlement  there^^  The  gentlemen  con- 
cerned in  the  undertaking,  declares  the  pamphlet,  published 
these  sheets  to  distinguish  themselves  from  "that  shadowy 
tribe  of  Nothings,  now  lately  deceased";  and  they  have 
purposely  delayed  publication  till  this  moment,  "when 
nothing  would  choose  to  appear  that  could  not  depend  on 
its  stability.     They  never  proposed  to  support  their  under- 

42  Probably  no  complete  purchase  was  effected.  Sir  Eobert,  in  a 
temporary  fit  of  discouragement,  may  have  made  some  arrangements 
with  Hill  about  the  grant  that  gave  Hill  a  greater  interest  in  it  than 
before,  but  did  not  go  so  far  as  an  unconditional  purchase.  I  have 
not  found  any  letters  or  other  documents  that  explain  the  situation 
more  definitely. 

43  It  was  advertised  in  the  Post  Boy,  October  22,  1720. 


hill's  projects  57 

taking  by  the  feeble  arts  of  the  Alley,  having  established  it 
on  so  solid  and  lasting  a  foundation,  that  they  have  nothing 
to  hope  or  fear  from  the  rise  and  fall  of  opinions." 

The  pamphlet  is  doubtfully  ascribed  to  Colonel  John 
Barnwell,  who  was  sent  to  England  to  secure  from  the 
Crown  confirmation  of  the  acts  of  the  Convention  that,  in 
December,  1719,  had  overthrown  the  Proprietary  govern- 
ment in  South  Carolina.  He  seems,  however,  to  have 
assisted  the  Proprietors  with  information,**  and  in  the 
pamphlet  he  asserts  their  right  to  make  grants  of  land. 
Sir  Robert's  grant  is  quoted — with  the  judicious  omission 
of  the  provision  that  a  settlement  must  be  made  within 
three  years  ;*^  and  the  new  plan  is  outlined.  On  May  3, 
1720,  according  to  the  account,  Sir  Robert  sold  the  Golden 
Islands  in  1,000  allotments  of  100  acres  each,  at  20 
shillings  an  acre;  the  land  was  conveyed  to  the  purchasers 
in  due  form  of  law  by  a  general  indenture,  but  the  money 
was  not  conveyed  to  Sir  Robert — it  was  merely  subject 
to  call.  The  islands  lay  four  or  five  miles  off  the  coast 
of  Azilia.  "As  to  the  four  islands  which  you  have  assigned 
to  the  purchasers  who  are  concerned  in  your  settlement," 
writes  Barnwell  to  ]\Iontgomery,  from  the  Carolina  Coffee 
House,  "they  are  called  St.  Simon,  Sapella,  St.  Caterina, 
and  Ogeche,  to  which  last  before  I  came  thence  I  left 
the  name  of  ]Montgomery.  You  have  given  them  a  gen- 
eral denomination,  wdiich  I  think  they  may  well  deserve, 
of  the  Golden  Islands,  for  as  to  convenient  pasture,  pleasant 
situation,  profitable  fishery  and  fowling,  they  surpass  any- 
thing of  that  kind  in  all  Carolina."  The  islands  are  safe 
from  Indians;  thousands  of  acres  are  already  cleared;  the 

4*  See  McCrady,  Bist.  of  South  Carolina  under  the  Proprietary  Gov., 
575. 

45  The  Proprietors  were  probably  willing  to  overlook  the  provision, 
for  the  sake  of  having  the  grant  in  the  hands  of  persons  friendly  to 
their  claims. 


60  AARON    HILL 

years.  Then,  in  1719,  a  certain  Mr.  Case  Billingsley,^^ 
solicitor  and  projector,  discovered  the  possibilities  of  a 
clause  in  their  charter,  empowering  them  to  purchase  lands ; 
the  great  estates  in  Scotland  and  the  north  of  England,  for- 
feited by  the  rebels  in  the  uprising  of  1715,  were  for  sale.^- 
Why  not  improve  the  water-works  by  the  acquisition  of 
land?  In  March,  1719,  the  water-works  were  on  the 
market;  in  October,  the  stock  was  transferred  to  Mr. 
Billingsley,  his  partner,  James  Bradley,  and  others,  for 
7,000  pounds;  and  a  few  days  later,  a  subscription  was 
opened  to  raise  a  fund  of  1,200,000  pounds  to  purchase 
forfeited  and  other  estates  in  Great  Britain.  Subscribers 
were  to  receive  annuities  of  some  sort ;  for  by  an  act  passed 
in  1719,  the  purchasers  of  forfeited  estates  might  grant  rent 
charges  or  annuities  to  the  extent  of  the  yearly  value.  The 
whole  amount  was  at  once  subscribed,  and  59,575  pounds 

51  Mr.  Billingsley  was  credited  with  being  the  contriver  of  the  Har- 
burg  Lottery,  which  formed  the  subject  of  Parliamentary  inquiry  in 
1723.  He  printed  the  tickets  and  kept  them  in  the  York  Buildings 
House.  Parliament  resolved  that  it  was  an  infamous  and  fraudulent 
undertaking.  See  Cobbett's  Parliamentary  Hist,  of  Eng.,  VIII,  62  f. 
The  St.  James's  Journal,  March  9,  1723,  notes  that  Mr.  Case  Billings- 
ley has  retired  from  Holland  to  remoter  parts. 

5  2  The  government  had  had  much  trouble  over  these  estates.  When 
the  thirteen  Commissioners  (among  the  six  for  Scotland  was  Sir 
Eichard  Steele)  tried  to  take  possession,,  they  became  involved  in 
difficulties:  claims  made  by  creditors  of  the  estates  were  used  as 
blinds  in  the  interest  of  the  families  of  the  rebels;  many  of  the 
factors,  nominated  by  the  creditors  and  appointed  by  the  Court  of 
County  Sessions,  were  in  reality  agents  of  the  banished  owners; 
claimants  sprang  up,  with  conveyances  apparently  executed  before 
the  rebellion  in  favor  of  minors;  the  Commissioners  and  the  Lords 
of  Sessions  constantly  disagreed.  In  1717,  the  government  passed  a 
statute  vesting  the  estates  in  the  Commissioners  to  be  sold  at  auction, 
and  by  1719-1720  they  were  ready  for  sale.  But  there  was  little 
money  in  Scotland.  In  financial  difficulties  the  age  turned  naturally 
to  a  joint-stock  company  for  relief.  Hence  the  opportunity  of  Mr. 
Case  Billingsley. 


hill's  projects  61 

added  the  next  month;  the  ten-pound  shares  were  soon 
selling  at  305,  and  10  per  cent,  dividends  were  promised. 
The  purchase  of  estates,  begun  on  October  6,  1719,  con- 
tinued into  the  following  year,  to  the  total  amount  of  308,- 
913  pounds.  When  the  South  Sea  Company  secured  its 
writ  against  the  York  Buildings  Company  and  others  (Au- 
gust 18,  1720),  the  stock  fell  from  300  to  200,  and  two  days 
later  had  no  buyers.  The  Commentator  of  September  5 
jocularly  explained  that  the  company  had  not  "broken  in 
upon  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  their  charter,  who  in 
the  power  of  raising  Thames  water  three  story  high,  had, 
no  question,  a  power  to  raise  a  bubble  to  300  per  cent.  For 
bubble  making  in  itself  is  a  kind  of  water-work  in  its 
original."  But  the  same  paper,  a  week  later,^^  removed 
the  company  from  the  list  of  bubbles,  with  apologies,  hav- 
ing learned  that  on  the  threat  of  government  proceedings 
it  had  returned  to  regular  methods  of  raising  money  by 
call. 

To  follow  in  detail  the  history  of  the  company  for  the 
next  five  years,  until  Hill  comes  into  the  story,  is  unneces- 
sary.^^ Their  financial  transactions  in  London  were  as  un- 
sound as  their  management  of  the  estates  in  Scotland  was 
inefficient.  One  board  of  managers  after  another,  infected 
with  the  evil  principles  of  the  Bubble  year,  gambled  with 
the  capital.  Money  was  raised  in  all  possible  ways — by 
calls  on  the  proprietors,  transfers  of  nominal  stock,  and 
even  lotteries  f^  and  the  only  result  was  an  annual  shortage 

53  No.  73. 

54  A  very  interesting  account,  fully  supplied  Tvith  all  the  technical 
details  of  high  finance  in  the  eighteenth  century,  is  that  by  David 
Murray,  The  YorJc  Buildings  Company:  a  Chapter  in  Seoteh  History, 
Glasgow,  1883.  Much  of  the  material  used  here  is  taken  from  this 
book. 

55  Lotteries,  all  partial  failures,  were  drawn  in  August,  1721, 
February,  1722,  and  in  1723.  To  give  a  deceitful  appearance  of 
value  to  the  stock,  seven  half-yearly  dividends  were  declared  between 
1721  and  1724,  and  paid  out  of  the  capital. 


62  AARON    HILL 

of  four  thousand  pounds.  Their  Scotch  estates,  in  Aber- 
deen, Perth,  Forfar,  Berwick,  Stirling,  and  elsewhere,  were 
almost  totally  uncultivated,  and  full  of  swamp  and  waste 
land ;  drainage  was  unknown ;  fertilizing  nearly  so ;  agricul- 
tural implements  were  primitive — wooden  ploughs,  for 
example,  and  wooden  mallets  for  breaking  clods;  and  the 
chief  crops  were  bere  and  oats.  Rentals  were  paid  in  kind, 
— in  hens,  butter,  peas,  meal,  geese,  and  wool.  Add  to  these 
primitive  conditions  on  the  estates  the  incredibly  bad 
roads,^*'  the  unpopularity  of  the  company  (which  inherited 
the  prejudice  against  the  Commissioners),  and  the  debts 
upon  all  the  estates  (which  the  company  also  inherited), 
and  it  is  evident  that  the  chances  of  profit,  even  with  the 
best  of  management,  were  small. 

In  spite  of  its  difficulties,  this  task  of  managing  extensive 
estates  all  over  Scotland  and  Northumbria — not  to  mention 
that  other  duty  of  furnishing  water  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  West  End — did  not  afford  sufficient  outlet  for  the 
energies  of  the  governor  and  his  six  assistants.^^  In  1727, 
Colonel  Samuel  Horsey,  then  governor,  made  a  proposal 
for  importing  timber,  masts,  marble,  and  "other  commodi- 
ties of  the  natural  growth  of  Scotland."^®  The  idea  was 
not  entirely  new.     Captain  Edward  Burt,  writing  about 

56  It  took  eight  days  to  travel  the  170  miles  between  Edinburgh  and 
Eoss-shire. 

5T  An  effort  was  made  to  improve  the  water-works:  in  1725  a  real 
fire-engine  was  installed — a  very  noisy  and  smoky  one,  according  to  a 
contemporary  account — which  proved  too  expensive,  and  was  replaced 
after  three  years  by  horse-power.  The  account  of  the  engine,  The 
YorTc  Buildings  Dragon,  is  reprinted  in  the  appendix  of  T.  Wright's 
England  under  the  Souse  of  Hanover,  1848. 

58  Colonel  Horsey  was  waiting  for  the  confirmation  of  his  appoint- 
ment by  the  Proprietors  as  governor  of  South  Carolina.  For  two 
years  or  more  (1725-1727),  there  is  a  record  of  delays,  petitions,  and 
memorials  for  and  against  the  right  of  the  Proprietors  to  appoint  a 
governor.     Col.  Hist.  Soc.  of  South  Carolina,  I,  172. 


hill's  projects  63 

1729,  says:^"  "I  remember  to  have  heard,  a  good  while  ago, 
that  in  the  time  when  Prince  George  of  Denmark  was  lord- 
high-admiral  of  England,  some  Scots  gentlemen  represented 
to  him  that  Scotland  could  furnish  the  navy  with  as  good 
timber  for  masts  and  other  uses  as  either  Sweden  or 
Norway  could  do,""  and  at  a  much  more  reasonable  rate." 
Two  surveyors  were  sent  up  at  that  time,  and,  after  a 
narrow  escape  from  hanging  at  the  hands  of  a  Highland 
chieftain  who  cared  nothing  for  credentials  from  Prince 
George,  they  did  survey  the  woods ;  but  nothing  further  was 
done. 

The  real  author  of  Colonel  Horsey 's  proposal  was  Hill, 
who  had  found  a  place  for  Scotch  timber  in  his  poem  to 
Harley  in  1714.  Even  before  the  governor  submitted  the 
plan  to  the  company,  he  had  evidently  come  to  some  agree- 
ment wdth  Hill:  "Mr.  Hill  has  finished  his  affair,"  wrote 
Savage  to  Mallet,  on  August  15,  1726,*^^  "and  by  disposing 
of  it  to  a  company,  has  secured  a  hundred  thousand  pounds 
for  himself.  On  Friday  was  s'ennight  he  set  out  in  his 
own  coach  and  six  to  Scotland,  with  his  wife,  and  his 
mother-in-law  accompanied  him  in  her  chariot."  The  coach 
and  six  may  be  accepted  on  Savage's  authority,  but  it  is 
impossible  that  anyone — least  of  all  Hill — could  secure  a 
hundred  thousand  pounds  from  the  York  Buildings  Com- 
pany. Another  letter,*'-  in  October,  refers  to  Hill's  arrival 
at  Berwick,  his  intended  tour,  and  halt  at  Inverness.  The 
appearance  of  his  coach  probably  made  a  sensation  in  Inver- 
se Letters,  5th  ed.,  II,  152.  Burt  was  a  surveyor  and  engineer, 
engaged  in  laying  out  roads  in  the  Highlands — a  work  begun  by 
Marshall  Wade  about  1726. 

60  The  Tar  Company  of  Sweden  had  practically  a  monopoly  of  ship 
supplies.  Parliament,  about  1704,  tried  with  little  success  to  encour- 
age the  making  of  tar,  hemp,  etc.,  in  the  Colonies.  Cnnningham, 
Ch-owth  of  English  Industry,  etc..  Part  I,  485  f. 

61  Quoted  in  G.  C.  Macaulay's  Thomson,  18,  note  1. 

62  Thomson  to  Hill,  October  20,  1726. 


64  AARON    HILL 

ness,  where  the  tiny  carts,  drawn  by  diminutive  horses,  had 
wheels  formed  of  three  pieces  of  plank.  "The  description 
of  these  puny  vehicles,"  wrote  Captain  Burt,  "brings  to 
my  memory  how  I  was  entertained  with  the  surprise  and 
amusement  of  the  common  people  in  this  town,  when,  in  the 
year  1725,  a  chariot  with  six  monstrous  great  horses  arrived 
here  by  way  of  the  seacoast.  An  elephant,  publicly  exposed 
in  one  of  the  streets  of  London,  could  not  have  excited 
greater  admiration.  One  asked  w^hat  the  chariot  was; 
another,  who  had  seen  the  gentleman  alight,  told  the  first, 
with  a  sneer  at  his  ignorance,  it  was  a  great  cart  to  carry 
people  in  and  such  like.'"'^ 

During  his  visit  of  several  months,^*  Hill  did  more  than 
merely  inspect  the  timber.  "  Is  it  not  true, ' '  wrote  a  gentle- 
man at  Edinburgh  in  1728,''5  "that  Aaron  Hill,  Esq.,  with 
the  advice,  concurrence,  and  assistance  not  only  of  the  com- 
pany, but  likewise  of  Messieurs  John  Essington  and  James 
Crisp  of  Wansworth,  sent  by  a  ship  to  Inverness  all  utensils 
for  cutting  and  clearing  of  wood,  with  copper  kettles  and 
other  things  needful  for  boiling  and  extracting  the  salt  out 
of  the  ashes,  and  came  himself  last  year  to  our  woods  in  the 
north,  and  having  examined  the  same,  did  burn  a  consider- 
able quantity  of  wood,  in  order  to  make  Russian  potash ; 
and  upon  his  failing  to  perform  the  same,  gave  out,  con- 
trary to  all  expectation,  that  our  wood  wanted  salt.  .  .  .  By 
this  imaginary  project  was  there  not  a  very  considerable 
sum  sunk?" 

G3  Letters,  I,  77. 

04  Hill  was  back  in  Lonidon  in  March,  1727 ;  a  letter  from  Thom- 
son of  March  4  refers  to  his  return  {Col.  of  1751). 

'^^  ' '  Letter  from  a  gentleman  at  Edinburgh  to  his  friend  at  Lon- 
don," B.M.  8223.  d.  7.  The  Londoner  had  sent  to  his  friend  the 
Daily  Post  of  November  21,  1727,  which  contained  abstracts  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  two  general  courts  of  the  company,  held  in  August 
and  November,  1727,  and  had  asked  his  opinion  of  the  company. 


hill's  projects  65 

Though  the  potash  experiment  failed,  Hill  was  so  de- 
lighted with  the  woods  that  he  wrote  to  Colonel  Horsey 
recommending  the  acquisition  of  the  timber,  and  on  his  re- 
turn to  London  urged  it  on  him  as  a  certain  source  of 
wealth.  It  was  then  that  Horsey  proposed  it  to  the  com- 
pany. "But  as  Hill's  name,  it  was  thought,  would  not  be 
acceptable  to  the  shareholders,  Thomas  Fordyce  and  Mr. 
Adam,  the  Company's  agents  in  Scotland,  were  put  for- 
ward as  the  proposers.'"^®  According  to  the  abstract  of 
the  governor's  report  to  the  general  courts  of  the  company, 
held  in  August  and  November,  1727,^"  the  woods  were 
capable  of  supplying  the  entire  demand  of  the  kingdom  for 
great  and  small  timber,  even  to  masts  for  the  first-rate  ships 
of  the  navy;  a  hundred  shiploads  a  year  for  twenty  years 
might  be  taken  from  the  famous  Abernethy  woods  alone; 
and  these  woods  were  conveniently  situated  near  the  most 
navigable  river  in  Scotland — the  Spey.  Best  of  all,  the 
Admiralty  was  willing  to  buy  from  the  company  the  masts 
and  yards  for  the  navy.*'*  The  result  of  these  representa- 
tions was  that  in  January,  1728,  sixty  thousand  fir  trees 
were  purchased.''^     To  secure  funds,  the  court  determined 

se  Murray,  YorTc  Buildings  Co.,  57. 

67  B.M.  8223.  d.  44. 

68 "  As  their  Act  of  Parliament  made  no  reference  to  importing 
mastg  and  marble,  the  company  solicited,  and  by  a  due  expenditure  in 
gratuities  and  presents  obtained  (August  21,  1728)  a  royal  licence  'to 
trade  in  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  of  the  growth  and  produce  of 
that  part  of  the  kingdom.'  "  Murray,  YorJ:  Buildings  Co.,  58.  See 
also  Maepherson,  III.  145,  under  the  year  1728 :  "A  premium  is  also 
enacted  for  the  importation  of  masts,  yards,  and  bowsprits  from 
Scotland,  where  .  .  .  there  are  in  sundry  parts  great  store  of  pine 
and  fir  trees." 

69  The  trees  were  purchased  at  the  rate  of  2/4  a  tree ;  Francis 
Place,  who  surveyed  the  woods  in  April,  1733,  said  that  20,000  trees 
worth  that  price  had  been  cut  down,  that  10,000  more  still  standing 
were  of  the  same  value,  but  the  remaining  30,000  were  worth  no  more 

6 


66  AARON   HILL 

to  revive  200,000  pounds  of  a  nominal  stock  of  600,000 
pounds,  which  had  been  annihilated  by  an  earlier  order 
of  the  court  in  1725 ;  and  the  proposers  of  the  scheme  were 
to  have  the  privilege  of  taking  this  up  at  10  per  cent.,  to  be 
paid  for  as  fast  as  money  was  needed  in  the  trade.  The 
apportionment  caused  squabbling:  Hill  demanded  16,000 
pounds;  but  "after  claiming  personally  and  'through  one 
Mrs.  Blunt,'  he  agreed  to  take  8,000,  in  discharge  of  which 
he  got  6,800  pounds  stock  of  the  company."^"  This  trans- 
action is  noticed  by  the  questioning  gentleman  at  Edinburgh 
already  quoted :  "  Is  it  not  true  that  200,000  pounds  stock 
was  transferred  by  the  eompany  to  one  or  two  at  London, 
and  that  he  or  they  sold  so  much  thereof  as  repaid  what 
Mr.  Hill's  friends  had  advanced  for  satisfying  the  com- 
pany's exigencies  mentioned  in  the  above-named  second 
general  court,  and  likewise  for  raising  money  to  carry  on 
the  project  of  trees  for  masts?" 

After  this  settlement,  Hill  set  out  once  more  for  Scotland, 
probably  in  the  spring  of  1728,  and  was  received  with  high 
honors.  The  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Gordon  "distinguished 
him  with  great  civilities, ' '  and  the  magistrates  of  Inverness 
presented  him  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  "at  an  elegant 
entertainment  made  by  them  on  that  occasion.  "^^  On 
August  18,  he  wrote  to  his  wife  "from  the  Golden  Groves 
of  Abernethy"^-  that  he  had  everything  settled  to  his  satis- 
faction; "the  shore  of  the  Spey,  for  a  mile  or  two  together 
along  our  meadow,  is  all  covered  with  masts,  from  fifty  to 
seventy  feet  long,  which  they  are  daily  bringing  out  of  the 
wood,  with  ten  carriages  and  above  a  hundred  horses ;  and 
[they]  bring  down  from  forty  to  fifty  trees  a  day,  one  day 

than  /6  a  tree  (Murray,  57,  quoted  from  the  House  of  Commons 
Journals). 

70  Murray,  Yoric  Buildings  Co.,  63. 

71  Gibber's  Lives,  V,  265. 

72  Worlcs,  1754,  I,  47  f. 


hill's  projects  67 

with  another.  In  the  middle  of  the  river  lie  at  anchor  a 
little  float  of  our  rafts,  which  are  just  putting  off  for  Find- 
horn  harbor;  and  it  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  sights  possible 
to  obser\'e  the  little  armies  of  men,  women,  and  children, 
who  pour  down  from  the  Highlands,  to  stare  at  what  we 
have  been  doing.  Colonel  Horsey  came  hither,  on  Wednes- 
day last,  and  is  in  such  raptures  at  what  he  sees  and  hears, 
that  he  scarce  knows  whether  he  walks  on  his  head  or  his 
heels.  "'^  The  Highlanders  had  good  reason  to  stare  at 
Hill's  operations,  for  they  were  without  precedent  in  that 
region.  The  former  owners  of  the  woods  had  been  ac- 
customed to  float  their  timber  down  in  single  logs  or  lots 
loosely  huddled  together,  attended  by  men  in  a  currach — a 
small  wicker  basket  covered  with  ox-hides.''*  Kafting  was 
unknown  until  Hill  introduced  it.  ''When  the  trees  were 
by  his  order  chained  together  into  floats,  the  ignorant  High- 
landers refused  to  venture  themselves  on  them  down  the 
river  Spey,  till  he  first  went  himself,  to  make  them  sensible 
there  was  no  danger.  .  .  .  He  found  a  great  obstacle  in  the 
rocks,  by  which  the  river  seemed  impassible ;  but  on  these  he 
ordered  fires  to  be  made,  when  by  the  lowness  of  the  river 
they  were  most  exposed,  and  then  had  quantities  of  water 
thrown  upon  them ;  which  method  being  repeated,  with  the 
help  of  proper  tools  they  were  broken  in  pieces  and  thrown 
down,  which  made  the  passage  easy  for  the  floats.""^     The 

'3  The  base  of  the  timber  operations  was  at  Culnakyle,  twenty-five 
miles  up  the  Spey  from  Garmouth;  tTie  logs  were  floated  down  to 
Garmouth,  and  then  conveyed  by  rafts  to  Findhorn,  a  little  distance 
down  the  coast ;  there  the  ships  loaded.  The  building  of  a  new  harbor 
was  projected,  because  that  of  Findhorn  was  not  safe,  and  the  passage 
from  Garmouth  was  hazardous.  William  Stephens,  who  was  appointed 
agent  for  the  company  in  December,  1728,  and  arrived  at  Culnakyle  in 
April,  1729,  corroborates  several  of  the  details  in  Hill's  letter.  See 
The  Castle  Builder,  or  the  History  of  William  Stephens,  etc.,  1759, 
60  f. 

~i  Murray,  YorJc  Buildings  Co.,  60. 

75  Gibber's  Lives,  Y,  265. 


68  AARON   HILL 

country  people  soon  learned  this  new  means  of  transport, 
and  floated  down  the  river  with  their  butter,  cheese,  skins, 
and  bark. 

Towards  the  end  of  September,  Hill  was  still  in  the  High- 
lands. "Nothing  should  have  prevailed  with  me  to  have 
spent  so  much  time  here,"  he  wrote  to  his  wife,'^^  "but  the 
glorious  prospect  of  the  company's  certain  advantage,  and 
the  fear  I  had,  if  anything  should  be  left  unregulated,  that 
the  silly  malice  of  some  wicked  spirits  in  Exchange  Alley 
would  have  made  an  ill  use  of  it,  to  the  stock's  disad- 
vantage." On  the  first  of  October,  he  set  out  on  his  re- 
turn,'^^  "having  left  everything  in  the  north  on  the  happiest 
and  most  flourishing  foot  in  the  world.  "'^^  An  unex- 
pectedly long  stay  in  the  neighborhood  of  York,  where  his 
wife  then  was,  "had  like  to  have  proved  of  unhappy  con- 
sequence, by  giving  room  for  some,  who  imagined  (as  they 
wished)  that  he  would  not  return,  to  be  guilty  of  a  breach 
of  trust  that  aimed  at  the  destruction  of  a  great  part  of 
what  he  was  worth;  but  they  were  disappointed. "''''  Just 
what  this  breach  of  trust  was  is  not  explained. 

How,  meanwhile,  was  the  enterprise  regarded  by  others? 
Burt,  an  experienced  engineer,  doubted  whether  it  would 
pay  to  remove  the  wood  over  bogs,  precipices,  and  rocky 
rivers.^"    At  the  very  time  when  Horsey  was  pictured  by 

76  Sept.  20,  1728.     Worlcs,  1754,  I,  50. 

77  Letter  to  Ms  wife  from  Dundee,  October  8,  Worlcs,  1754,  I,  51, 

78  Hill  left  memorials  of  his  visit  on  various  window  panes.  Burt 
observed  ' '  at  the  first  stage  on  this  side  Berwick,  a  good  deal  of 
scribbling  upon  a  window";  among  the  lines  were  those  of  Hill  on 
the  weather  in  Scotland.  "By  the  two  initial  letters  of  a  name,  I 
soon  concluded  it  was  your  neighbor,  Mr.  Aaron  Hill,  but  wondered 
at  his  manner  of  taking  leave  of  this  country,  after  he  had  been  so 
exceedingly  complaisant  to  it,  when  here,  as  to  compare  its  subter- 
raneous riches  with  those  of  Mexico."     Letters,  I,  181. 

70  Gibber 's  Lives,  V,  265. 
»o  Letters,  I,  283. 


hill's  projects  69 

Hill  in  a  state  of  delirious  rapture,  a  significant  advertise- 
ment appeared  in  Mist's  Weekly  Journal^^  of  a  company  to 
be  formed  for  furnishing  naval  stores  from  the  plantations, 
"there  being  no  likelihood  of  the  York  Builders  doing  it 
from  Scotland,"  but  this  positive  statement  may  have 
represented  merely  the  wish  of  a  rival  projector.  While 
Hill  was  yet  in  the  country,  the  doubting  Edinburgh  gentle- 
man expressed  views  at  variance  with  Hill's:^  the  harbor 
at  Garmouth,  he  is  told  by  a  friend  living  on  Spey-side,  is 
dry  at  low  tide  and  only  six  or  seven  feet  deep  at  high  tide, 
and  is  open  to  storms ;  after  heavy  rains,  the  current  of  the 
river  is  so  rapid  that  trees  cannot  be  stopped  from  rushing 
into  the  ocean ;  it  required  seven  weeks  to  bring  down  sixty 
small  trees  to  Garmouth,  though  over  a  score  of  men  worked 
daily;  "there  is  not  one  tree  in  their  wood  of  proper 
dimensions  for  a  bowsprit  to  a  first-rate,"  and  as  for  the 
harbor,  it  is  indeed  secure — "so  secure  that  no  ship  that 
can  stow  trees  can  reach  it,  for  sands,  and  shingles. ' '  This 
was  probably  among  certain  "lying  papers"  that  Mrs.  Hill 
told  her  husband  about ;  he  thanked  her  and  added  that  the 
directors  had  sent  him  a  dozen  or  more  "such  monstrous 
mixtures  of  folly,  falsehood,  and  impudence;  the  magis- 
trates of  Edinburgh  have  thought  fit  to  make  a  public 
example  of  some  who  distributed  them  in  this  country."*^ 
They  may  really  have  been  malicious  and  at  least  partly 
false,  for  a  specimen  cargo  that  was  cut  and  sent  to  London 
was  reported,  by  the  master  mast-maker  at  Deptford,  to  be 
of  excellent  quality.  But  it  was  a  fact  that  there  were  no 
trees  fit  for  masts  for  first-rates;  Hill  unquestionably  saw 
taller  trees  on  Speyside  than  were  really  there. 

Though  William  Stephens,  the  agent  sent  to  Abernethy 

81  August  24,  1728. 

82  B.M.  8223.  d.  44.  1-7. 

83  WorTcs,  1754,  I,  50. 


70  AARON    HILL 

at  the  end  of  1728,  developed  the  plank  and  deal  board 
trade  with  some  success,  yet  in  four  years  the  charges  ex- 
ceeded the  returns  by  nearly  28,000  pounds.  "Well  might 
the  Reverend  Mr.  John  Grant,  the  parish  minister,  say 
of  them :  'the  most  profuse  and  profligate  set  that  ever  were 
heard  of  in  this  corner.  .  .  .  This  was  said  to  be  a  stock- 
jobbing business.  Their  extravagancies  of  every  kind 
ruined  themselves  and  corrupted  others.  Their  beginning 
was  great  indeed,  with  120  working  horses,  waggons,  elegant 
temporary  wooden  houses,  saw-mills,  iron-mills,  and  every 
kind  of  implement  and  apparatus  of  the  best  and  most  ex- 
pensive sorts.  They  used  to  display  their  vanity  by  bon- 
fires, tar-barrels,  and  opening  hogsheads  of  brandy  to  the 
country  people,  by  which  five  of  them  died  in  one  night. 
They  had  a  commissary  for  provisions  and  forage  at  a  hand- 
some salary,  and  in  the  end  went  off  in  debt  to  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  country.  But  yet  their  coming  .  .  .  was 
beneficial  in  many  respects,  for  besides  the  knowledge  and 
skill  which  was  acquired  from  them,  they  made  many  useful 
and  lasting  improvements.^*  They  made  roads  through  the 
woods.  They  erected  proper  saw-mills.  They  invented  the 
construction  of  the  raft  as  it  is  at  present,  and  cut  a  passage 
through  a  rock  in  Spey,  without  which  floating  to  any 
extent  could  never  be  attempted.'  "®^  The  death  knell  of 
the  timber  project  was  sounded  in  July,  1730,  when  the 
general  court  of  the  company,  after  considering  Hill's  claim 
to  a  part  of  the  200,000  pounds  stock  at  10  per  cent,  "as  a 
reward  for  the  timber  scheme,"  resolved  "that  the  timber 
scheme  had  not  in  any  point  answered  the  expectations  of 

84  Hill  tells  his  wife  (Worls,  1754,  I,  53)  that  "Adam  and  Eve 
in  the  wilderness  lay  in  just  such  houses  as  the  Highlanders — only  I 
believe  they  were  not  altogether  so  dirty. ' ' 

85  Murray,  York  Buildings  Co.,  61 ;  quoted  from  Old  Stat.  Acct., 
XIII,  133. 


hill's  projects  71 

the  company,  from  the  character  given  by  the  proposers,  and 
that  they  had  no  title  to  the  stock. ' '«'' 

A  brief  summary  of  the  later  career  of  the  company — too 
interesting  to  be  entirely  passed  over — will  explain  why 
Hill,  who  still  had  some  share  in  the  stock,  was  by  turns 
hopeful  of  profit  and  dismally  conscious  of  loss.^^  From 
timber  the  company  turned  to  iron ;  by  1732,  the  debit  on 
the  enterprise  was  nearly  7,000  pounds.  Their  coal  works 
and  salt-pans  at  Tranent  were  equally  unsuccessful;  and 
their  glass  works  resulted  in  a  loss  of  over  4,000  pounds. 
They  next  tried  lead  and  copper  mining,  and  leased  the 
mines  at  a  ruinous  rental  from  Sir  Archibald  Grant  and 
others,  who  were  interested  in  the  "Charitable  Corporation 
for  the  Relief  of  the  Industrious  Poor,"  which  lent  small 
sums  upon  pledges.  Their  interest  for  several  years  had 
taken  the  form  of  treating  themselves  as  industrious  poor, 
and  borrowing  the  money  of  their  Corporation  on  sham 

86  Ibid.,  63,  note. 

87  See  letter  to  Victor,  April  9,  1733  (Victor's  Hist,  of  the  Theatres, 
II,  192):  Hill  states  that  he  has  8,000  pounds  in  York  Buildings 
Company  bonds,  though  he  could  make  only  3,000  if  he  were  to  sell 
them.  In  July,  1738,  Colonel  Horsey  was  appointed  governor  of  South 
Carolina  (Col.  Hist.  Soc.  of  South  Carolina,  II,  269).  He  had  been 
turned  out  of  the  York  Buildings  Company  in  1733,  and  sued  by  the 
company  in  1735.  Hill's  letter  to  his  daughter,  of  June  23,  1737 
(WorJcs,  1754,  I,  335),  refers  to  the  South  Carolina  appointment  as 
possible:  "As  soon  as  it  is  confirmed,  .  .  .  then  Mr.  Stanlake  may  go 
to  him.  and  insist  on  an  assignment  from  his  salary  for  regular  pay- 
ment (not  of  the  debt,  for  that  he  can't  yet  do)  but  of  the  current 
yearly  interest.  And  let  him,  if  he  can,  include  the  interest  on  my 
long  arrears;  for  from  1729  to  this  day,  I  have  received  but  100 
pounds  upon  the  vrhole,  instead  of  75  pounds  yearly,  from  the  colonel." 
In  a  letter  to  Popple,  September  15,  1740  {Worhs,  1753,  II,  67)  is 
another  reference  to  Horsey:  "What  a  lottery  wheel  is  this  world! 
we  have  seen  it  in  the  melancholy  fate  of  our  poor  friend  Col.  Horsey. 
After  twenty  years  unwearied  pursuit  of  one  flattering  and  favorite 
prospect,  he  had  no  sooner  possessed  it  .  .  .  than  he  died. ' ' 


72  AARON   HILL 

pledges,  for  purposes  of  speculation.  When  on  the  verge 
of  ruin,  they  decided  to  lease  their  mines  to  the  York  Build- 
ings Company,  in  the  hope  that  the  transaction  would  cause 
a  rise  in  York  stock,  by  which  they  could  profit.  The 
Corporation  finally  collapsed;  there  was  a  Parliamentary 
inquiry ;  and  of  course  the  York  Builders  reaped  no  benefit 
from  the  notoriety.  The  mines,  developed  with  enthusiasm, 
were  abandoned  in  1740,  having  proved  ruinous  to  share- 
holders, but  beneficial  to  the  country.  On  the  whole,  Scot- 
land profited  considerably  from  the  operations  of  the  com- 
pany, but  no  one  else  did.  The  details  of  bond  issues  and 
reissues,  of  petitions  of  creditors,  and  of  Parliamentary 
inquiries,  up  to  the  year  1740,  when  the  company  finally 
got  into  Chancery,  may  be  read  in  David  Murray's  account. 
For  fifty  years  more,  there  were  proceedings  in  the  Scotch 
and  English  courts ;  and  when  the  estates  were  finally  sold, 
they  had  doubled  and  trebled  in  value,  through  the  im- 
provements in  agriculture.  In  1818,  only  the  old  water- 
works were  left,  and  these  were  closed  by  agreement  with 
the  New  River  Company,  for  an  annuity.  In  1829,  Parlia- 
ment dissolved  the  company,  and  divided  the  proceeds  of 
the  property  among  the  stockholders.  Thus,  after  a 
troubled  and  adventurous  existence  of  a  century  and  a  half, 
the  York  Buildings  Company  ended  as  quietly  and  re- 
spectably as  it  had  started,  with  all  its  debts  ultimately 
discharged  by  the  rise  in  the  price  of  land. 

Knowledge  that  the  company  would  become  solvent  in  the 
next  century  would  probably  have  afforded  slight  consola- 
tion to  Hill  for  his  present  losses  and  disappointments. 
But  he  could  at  least  reflect  with  satisfaction,  in  his  seclu- 
sion at  Plaistow,  that  Highlanders  were  floating  comfort- 
ably on  their  rafts  down  a  navigable  Spey ;  and  to  see  their 
efforts  result  in  immediate  good  to  the  country  was  given 
to  few  of  the  York  Builders — ^their  operations  were  directly 


hill's  projects  73 

disastrous  and  only  indirectly  and  remotely  beneficial.  Hill 
had  now  had  enough  of  joint-stock  enterprises  and  was 
ready  to  keep  the  resolution  he  had  made  prematurely  in 
1723, — to  have  done  with  all  designs  he  could  not  execute 
himself.*^  Aside  from  his  experiments  with  grapes  and 
potash  at  Plaistow,  he  did  not  attempt  to  carry  out  any 
more  of  his  ideas.  Not  that  he  ceased  to  conceive  them! 
They  were  always  ready  for  the  consideration  of  those  who 
would  listen. 

When  The  Citizen,  or  the  Weekly  Conversation  of  a  So- 
ciety of  London  MercJmnts  on  Trade  and  other  Public 
Affairs,  was  started  in  February,  1739,  Hill  intended  to 
become  a  contributor;  but  whether  he  really  wrote  any  of 
the  score  of  papers  that  were  published  is  doubtful,^^  "I 
am  asham'd  to  have  been  so  lazy  a  Correspondent  with 
The  Citizen,"  he  wrote  Richardson  in  April  of  that  year;"*' 
"tho'  it  has  not  altogether  proceeded  from  Laziness,  but, 
chiefly,  from  a  Desire  to  observe,  from  the  Turn  of  a  proper 
Number  of  Papers,  in  what  Manner,  and  with  what  Choice 
of  Subjects,  Sir  "William  wou'd  incline  to  Distinguish  his 
Purpose :  that  so,  I  might  vary  as  little  as  possible  from  the 
General  Aim  of  the  Paper,  in  any  of  Those  I  shou'd  send  it. 
I  perceive  it  seems  fondest  of  Hints  that  relate  to  our  Trade, 
and  in  particular  to  That  of  our  American  Colonies — and  I 
believe  I  cou'd  say  many  Things,  that  might  be  fit  to  be 

88  Hill  to  Victor,  February  21,  1723.  (Victor,  Hist,  of  the  Theatres, 
II,  171). 

89  They  took  up  such  subjects  as  the  Spanish  trade,  the  sugar  trade, 
the  Carolina  boundary  question,  the  smuggling  of  wool,  the  need  of 
infirmaries  and  foundling  hospitals,  the  designs  of  Russia,  the  decay 
of  the  drama,  etc.  The  "Sir  William"  mentioned  by  Hill  was  per- 
haps Sir  William  Keith,  who  wrote  a  History  of  Virginia  (London, 
1738),  at  the  instance  of  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of 
Learning;  Eichardson  was  printer  and  James  Thomson  secretary  of 
the  Society. 

90  April  12,  1739.     Forster  MS. 


74  AARON   HILL 

read  on  those  Subjects."  War  and  armies,  as  well  as  trade, 
occupied  his  thoughts.  He  gave  Lord  Chesterfield  the  op- 
portunity of  stamping  out  a  prevalent  army  disease  by  a 
very  simple  remedy;®^  and  he  presented  a  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty  with  an  ingenious  scheme  for  blocking  the  coast 
against  Spain.^^  j^  jg  -^q  ]jq  regretted  that  his  "tract  of 
new  improvements  in  the  art  of  war,"  a  piece  "very  full  of 
novelty,"  remained  unpublished;  in  the  form  in  which  he 
intended  to  present  it,  it  might  have  been  worth  reading: 
"Would  it  not  be  better,"  he  asks  Richardson,  "instead  of 
a  dry  dissertation  on  what  might  be  done  in  arms,  to  present 
it  to  the  entertained  imagination  as  what  Jmd  already  been; 
laying  the  scene  at  some  pretended  time,  in  some  imaginary 
country ;  and  uniting,  in  a  lively  story,  all  the  use,  surprise, 
and  pleasure  of  historical  narration,  filled  with  warlike  and 
political  events,  of  a  new  turn  and  species,  to  the  active 
demonstration  of  a  theory  that  else  might  pass  for  project 
onlyr"*^  He  had  by  this  time  (1748)  arrived  at  a  fine 
contempt  for  the  practical.  "How  preferable,"  he  ex- 
claims, "to  whole  lives  of  mill-horse  rounds  in  practical  con- 
tractions, an  extended  theory  may  be ! " 

Though  the  projecting  spirit  could  exercise  itself  only  in 
"obstinate  meditation"  during  these  last  years  of  Hill's 
life,  its  triumph  over  sickness,  repeated  disappointments, 
and  misfortune  is  impressive.  It  would  be  hard  to  find — 
among  literary  men,  at  least, — a  more  complete  embodi- 
ment of  that  spirit  than  Hill.  Steele  had  his  Fish-pool 
scheme,  Gay  speculated  in  South  Sea  stock,  and  Bishop 
Berkeley  planned  a  college  in  the  Bermudas.  But  Hill's 
activity  embraced  the  invention  of  machinery,  the  search 

.01  Hill  to  Chesterfield,  Worls,  1753,  II,  321   (1747). 

02  Works,  II,  25. 

03  Hill  to  Richardson,  November  2,  1748,  Richardson's  Correspond- 
ence, I,  130. 


hill's  projects  75 

for  new  processes  of  manufacture,  the  attempt  to  establish 
new  industries,  in  England  and  the  colonies,  the  develop- 
ment of  unused  natural  resources,  and  the  founding  of  new 
settlements.  He  takes  us  from  Exchange  Alley,  with  all 
its  stock-jobbing  mysteries,  to  the  Alatamaha,  and  from  the 
Golden  Islands  to  the  Golden  Groves.  And  to  prove  that 
he  was  no  mere  dreamer,  we  have  the  evidence  of  the  melted 
rocks  and  the  rafts  in  the  Highlands.  Into  all  these 
projects  he  threw  the  energy  of  an  ordinary  life-time,  and 
yet  they  were  only  a  part  of  his  life.  He  ardently  pursued 
literature  in  his  leisure  moments,  and  after  each  commercial 
disaster,  he  returned  to  the  affairs  of  the  stage.  Before  he 
tried  to  introduce  a  new  kind- of  oil,  he  had  really  intro- 
duced Handel  into  England. 


CHAPTER   III 

HILL    AND    THE    STAGE 
1709-1723 

Of  one  niche  in  literary  history  Hill  is  secure :  no  account 
of  18th  century  tragedy  is  complete  without  a  reference  to 
his  adaptations  of  Voltaire's  plays.  Had  he  done  nothing 
else,  however,  than  win  this  doubtful  honor,  his  dramatic 
achievement  would  not  merit  a  chapter  to  itself.  No  one 
willingly  reads  the  tragedies  of  Hill's  age;  and  few,  except 
as  a  matter  of  duty,  care  to  read  much  about  them.  But 
this  period  of  the  drama,  far  from  noteworthy  from  the 
purely  literary  standpoint,  was  one  of  great  interest  in 
other  ways:  it  saw  the  acting  of  Betterton  and  Mrs.  Old- 
field  and  Garrick;  the  development  of  opera  and  panto- 
mime as  rivals  of  comedy  and  tragedy;  and  the  establish- 
ment by  the  Licensing  Act  of  a  theatrical  monopoly  that 
for  more  than  a  century  exercised  a  profound  influence  on 
the  history  of  the  drama  in  England. 

The  questions  discussed  by  men  interested  in  the  stage 
were  curiously  like  those  with  which  we  are  familiar  today. 
We  find  the  management  of  theatres  denounced  as  in- 
competent and  mercenary;  the  public  taste  condemned  as 
depraved;  and  the  popularity  of  vulgar  farces  and  cheap 
musical  entertainments  interpreted  by  moralists  and  un- 
successful authors  alike  as  a  sure  sign  of  the  approaching 
moral  degeneration  of  the  race.  Has  tragedy  really  ceased 
to  have  any  appeal  for  the  general  public?  Should  the 
public  be  supplied  with  what  it  likes,  or  what  it  ought  to 
like  ?     Should  there  be  any  censorship  of  the  stage,  and  how 

76 


HILL   AND    THE    STAGE  77 

should  it  be  exercised?  Can  a  national  theatre  be  estab- 
lished to  encourage  poetic  drama,  and  managed  by  disin- 
terested persons  who  "will  regard  profit  as  a  purely 
secondary  consideration?  Is  opera  in  English  possible? 
All  these  problems,  essentially  the  same  as  they  are  today, 
in  spite  of  their  eighteenth  century  dress,  faced  the  in- 
terested observer  of  theatrical  conditions  in  Hill's  time;  and 
on  all  of  them  Hill  had  very  definite  opinions.  Most  of  his 
opinions  were  voiced,  with  perhaps  less  energy,  by  his  con- 
temporaries, but  a  few  are  peculiarly  his.  Nor  did  he  con- 
fine himself  to  vigorous  expression  of  his  ideas — he  made 
repeated  efforts  to  carry  them  out.  He  was  not  merely 
critic  and  adviser  at  large  to  actors,  managers,  playwrights, 
and  the  general  public ;  he  was  himself  author  and  manager. 
To  follow  his  activity  from  1709  to  1749  is  to  review  almost 
every  phase  of  the  theatrical  history  of  the  period. 

To  make  clear  the  situation  in  1709  when  Hill  first  en- 
tered the  field,  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  1662.^  In  that 
year  Charles  II  granted  two  patents,  one  to  Sir  Thomas 
Killigrew  for  the  King's  Company  at  Drury-Lane,  and  the 
other  to  Sir  William  Davenant  for  the  Duke's  Company  at 
Covent  Garden ;  all  other  companies  and  theatres  were  sup- 
pressed. In  1682,  both  companies  v\'ere  so  feeble  that  the 
king  merged  them ;  the  salaries  of  actors  were  reduced,  and 
shares  in  the  patents  were  sold  to  speculators  or  assigned 
by  the  patentees  to  others.  In  1690,  the  lawyer  Christopher 
Rich  secured  Davenant 's  patent;  but  he  made  his  manage- 
ment so  irksome  to  a  large  number  of  his  actors  that  led  by 
the  famous  Betterton,  they  laid  their  grievances  before  the 
Lord  Chamberlain  and  were  granted  a  license,  in  1695, 
under  which  they  built  by  subscription  the  New  Theatre 
in  Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields.     They  had  the  support  of  Con- 

1  For  the  authorities  used  in  this  account  of  the  history  of  the  stage, 
see  the  Bibliography. 


78  AAEON    HILL 

greve,  who  wrote  Love  for  Love  for  the  opening  of  their 
theatre,  and  who  had  a  share  in  the  company.  But  Rich 
held  his  own,  with  the  aid  of  tumblers,  buffoons,  and 
singers,  until  his  inexperienced  actors  (among  whom  was 
young  Colley  Gibber)  grew  sufficiently  expert  to  threaten 
the  prestige  of  Betterton's  company.  Then  Betterton,  too, 
had  to  resort  to  illegitimate  attractions.  In  1705,  Van- 
brugh  opened  an  opera  house  in  the  Haymarket  under  the 
patronage  of  the  Court,  but  the  acoustics  were  bad,  and  the 
opera  failed;  he  joined  forces  with  Betterton,  and  under 
Betterton's  license  transferred  the  actors  to  the  Haymarket ; 
but  nothing  prospered,  and  he  finally  unloaded  his  burdens 
on  a  certain  Owen  McSwiney — apparently  an  under- 
manager  of  Rich's. 

Rich,  who  was  suspected  of  being  behind  the  transaction, 
did  not  at  once  get  control,  however.  There  were  other 
shareholders  in  his  patent,  who  had  come  to  regard  it  as 
such  a  hopeless  investment  that  one  of  them.  Sir  Thomas 
Skipwith,  gave  his  share  in  a  jest  to  Colonel  Brett.  The 
latter  happened  to  be  an  enterprising  man,  with  some  influ- 
ence over  the  Lord  Chamberlain;  he  forced  himself  into 
the  management,  and  effected,  about  1708,  an  agreement 
between  the  two  companies,  by  which  the  Haymarket, 
managed  by  McSwiney,  monopolized  Italian  opera,  and 
Drury-Lane,  managed  by  Rich  and  Brett,  kept  the  plays. 
Skipwith,  seeing  a  chance  of  profit,  repented  of  his  gift  and 
took  back  his  property.  Rich,  at  last  in  complete  control 
of  the  situation,  resumed  his  tyrannical  conduct,  until  he 
again  drove  his  actors  to  revolt  and  brought  upon  himself 
in  June,  1709,  a  silencing  mandate.  His  theatre  was  closed, 
but  his  actors  were  permitted  to  engage  with  McSwiney  at 
the  Haymarket,  where  both  plays  and  operas  were  per- 
formed. It  is  to  be  noted  that  not  all  of  the  actors  were 
hostile  to  Rich,  as  Hill  found  out  to  his  cost  later.     From 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  79 

this  date  until  1714,  the  patent  remained  dormant  in  the 
hands  of  Rich.^ 

Then  entered  on  the  scene  William  Collier,  M.P,,  who  had 
interest  at  Court  and  a  share  in  the  sleeping  patent.  Ad- 
vised that  if  a  shareholder  submitted  to  the  Queen  and 
waived  all  right  in  the  patent  the  Queen  would  permit  him 
to  reopen  Drury-Lane,  he  made  his  submission,  secured  a 
new  lease  from  the  landlord — for  Rich  held  on  to  the  lease 
as  well  as  to  the  patent — and  took  forcible  possession  on 
November  22,  1709.  The  Tatler  tells  the  story  of  Rich's 
("Divito's")  departure:^ 

"On  the  22nd  instant,  a  night  of  public  rejoicing,  the 
enemies  of  Divito  made  a  largess  to  the  people  of  faggots, 
tubs,  and  other  combustible  matter,  which  was  erected  into 
a  bonfire  before  the  palace.  Plentiful  cans  were  at  the 
same  time  distributed  among  the  dependencies  of  that 
principality ;  and  the  artful  rival  of  Divito  observing  them 
prepared  for  enterprise,  presented  the  lawful  owner  of  the 
neighboring  edifice,  and  showed  his  deputation  under  him. 
"War  immediately  ensued  upon  the  peaceful  empire  of  Wit 
and  the  Muses;  the  Goths  and  Vandals  sacking  Rome  did 
not  threaten  a  more  barbarous  devastation  of  arts  and  sci- 
ences. But  when  they  had  forced  their  entrance,  the  ex- 
perienced Divito  had  detached  all  his  subjects  and  evacu- 
ated all  his  stores.  The  neighboring  inhabitants  report, 
that  the  refuse  of  Divito's  followers  marched  off  the  night 
before  disguised  in  magnificence ;  doorkeepers  came  out  clad 
like  cardinals,  and  scene-drawers  like  heathen  gods.  Divito 
himself  was  wrapped  up  in  one  of  his  black  clouds,  and 
left  to  the  enemy  nothing  but  an  empty  stage,  full  of  trap- 
doors, known  only  to  himself   and  his  adherents."     Ac- 

2  Eich  had  owned  originally  only  about  one-sixth  of  the  patent ; 
"yet  by  obstinate  dishonesty,  he  succeeded  in  annexing  the  remain- 
der. ' '    Gibber 's  Apology,  ed.  Lowe,  II,  99,  n.  1. 

3  No.  99,  November  26,  1709. 


80  AARON    HILL 

eordingly,  when  the  theatre  opened  the  next  day,  the  actors 
were  without  properties  or  stage  clothes.  -  The  players 
whom  Rich  had  kept  inactive — among  them  Booth,  not  yet 
famous, — came  over  to  Collier;  but  they  were  secretly  in 
Rich's  interest. 

Although  Collier  had  successfully  engineered  this  excit- 
ing transaction,  he  apparently  felt  his  incapacity  as  stage 
manager.  Just  why  Aaron  Hill  sought  the  post,  or  what 
arguments  he  used  to  persuade  Collier  of  his  fitness,  is  not 
clear.  Perhaps  his  influential  patrons,  Peterborough  espe- 
cially, were  in  themselves  an  argument,  and  perhaps  his 
schoolfellow  Booth  suggested  the  enterprise,  just  as  he  sug- 
gested the  subject  of  Hill's  first  play.  At  all  events,  when 
Drury-Lane  opened  on  November  23,  1709,  Avith  Auren- 
gezebe,  it  was  under  the  direction  of  Hill.  His  manage- 
ment lasted  until  June,  1710;  its  chief  events  were  the 
production  of  his  tragedy,  Eljrid,  and  the  trouble  with  his 
actors  that  brought  it  to  a  close. 

On  January  3, 1710,  ^'//n'cZ,  with  a  farce,  also  by  Hill,  called 
The  Walki7ig  Statue,  was  performed,  and  afterwards  acted 
five  times  with  moderate  success.*  The ' '  first  dramatic  sally ' ' 
of  his  youth,  written  in  less  than  a  fortnight,  he  later  re- 
garded as  "an  unpruned  wilderness  of  fancy,  with  here 
and  there  a  flower  among  the  leaves."^  For  all  that,  he 
tried  to  preserve  the  unities — more  carefully,  perhaps,  as  he 
says  in  the  preface,  than  an  English  audience  thinks  need- 
ful. This  is  an  interesting  admission  of  the  indifference  of 
the  public  to  those  idols  of  the  critics  of  the  day — the 
unities.  The  play  tells  the  story  of  Athelwold,  who,  sent  to 
report  to  the  Saxon  king  Edgar  of  the  beauty  of  Elfrid, 

4  In  the  preface  to  Elfrid,  Hill  thanks  Steele  for  trying  to  persuade 
the  actors  at  the  Haymarket — Betterton  and  the  old  company  were 
acting  there  under  McSwiney's  management — ^to  put  off  the  represen- 
tation of  his  Tender  Husband  until  after  the  production  of  Elfrid. 

B  Preface  to  Athelwold,  the  revised  play  published  in  1731. 


HILL    AND   THE   STAGE  81 

falls  SO  deeply  in  love  with  her  that  he  secretly  marries  her 
himself,  and  tells  the  king  that  she  is  not  worthy  of  his 
royal  notice.  The  action  begins  with  the  unexpected  arrival 
of  the  king  at  Athelwold's  castle;  Athelwold  is  forced  to 
explain  to  Elfrid  the  deception  he  has  practised,  and  to 
beg  her  to  allow  his  less  charming  sister  Ordelia  to  pose 
as  his  wife;  Elfrid  consents,  but  reluctantly — the  thought 
of  her  narrow  escape  from  the  throne  does  not  increase  her 
love  for  her  husband.  The  scheme  works  very  well  until 
one  of  Ordelia 's  two  lovers — the  villain — discovers  that  the 
king  has  taken  a  fancy  to  Ordelia;  to  divert  the  royal 
thoughts  into  another  channel,  he  reveals  the  secret,  and 
persuades  Edgar,  angry  at  the  fraud  and  enraptured  with 
a  glimpse  of  Elfrid,  to  send  Athelwold  off  that  night  on  a 
mission  and  in  his  absence  win  his  lady.  But  they  reckoned 
without  Athelwold's  father's  ghost,  who  forbids  his  journey 
and  sends  him  trembling  back,  to  arrive  inopportunely  just 
when  his  friend  has  despatched  the  villain,  and  the  king  is 
emerging  from  Elfrid 's  chamber.  Athelwold  starts  to  kill 
the  king,  but  on  the  appearance  of  Elfrid  makes  her  the 
victim  instead ;  he  is  then  slain  by  the  king,  who  devotes  the 
remaining  lines  of  the  play  to  a  eulogy  of  his  virtues. 

Elfrid  has  the  merits  of  comparative  brevity  and  rapid 
action,  but  the  characterization  is  slight.  It  is  hard  to 
resist  picking  at  least  one  flower  from  the  wilderness  of 
fancy:  "Peace  and  rest,"  says  Athelwold  to  Elfrid, 

"Are  woman's  gifts  to  man;  when  toils  and  cares 
Have  worn  our  weary  souls,  woman,  dear  woman, 
Is  nature's  downy  pillow  of  repose."  ^     (Act  I.) 

6  One  other  flower  ought  not  to  be  overlooked : 

' '  Women  are  much  to  blame  who  cloak  their  wishes, 
Perverting  modesty  from  nature's  meaning; 
Her  end  in  that  bright  virtue  was  to  join 
To  guiltless  freedom  artless  innocence; 


82  AARON    HILL 

There  are  occasional  good  lines,  however ;  such  as  these  from 
Act  II. 

"  They  who  fight  men  fight  equal  enemies ; 
But  they  who  war  with  conscience  meet  such  odds 
They  lose  by  victory." 

The  little  farce  enjoyed  a  fair  measure  of  success,  and 
was  revived  half  a  dozen  times  during  the  next  twelve 
years.'^  It  was  probably,  as  Genest  says,  more  amusing  to 
watch  than  it  is  to  read.  In  the  dedication  of  Elf  rid  to  the 
Marquis  of  Kent,  Hill  declared  comedy  to  be  the  easiest 
way  of  pleasing;  and  perhaps  one  other  play  of  the  season 
— Square  Brainless,  or  Trick  upon  Trick,  performed  April 
27,  1710, — was  an  attempt  to  demonstrate  the  theory.  The 
editor  of  the  Biographia  Dramatica  states  that  it  was 
written  by  Aaron  Hill,  never  published,  and  damned  on 
the  very  first  night;  but  we  see  from  Genest  that  it  was 
acted  three  times.  Hill  put  on  many  old  plays  during  the 
season — those  of  Congreve,  Farquhar,  Dryden,  Otway,  and 
Shakespeare — and  a  few  new  ones  besides  his  own.  The 
most  successful  was  Charles  Shadwell's  Fair  Quaker  of 
Deal,  which  drew  large  crowds  even  during  the  trial  of 
Sacheverell.^ 

There  is  a  flattering  picture  of  Hill's  management  in  an 
ode,  "To  Aaron  Hill,  Esq.,  upon  his  being  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  the  Royal  Theatre,"  published  in  the  friendly 

But  modern  ladies  scarce  find  other  use 

For  the  new-moulded  nymph,  than  to  cloak  nature" — 

surely  a  novel  use  for  a  new-moulded  nymph ! 

7  D.L.  February  6,  1712 ;  July  26,  1723.  L.I.F.  March  30,  May  4, 
and  May  10,  1720;  February  13,  1721  (Genest).  The  plot  is  based  on 
the  various  attempts  of  Sprightly,  his  man  Toby,  and  Corporal  Cuttom 
to  get  messages  through  to  the  fair  Leonora,  closely  guarded  by  a 
half-blind  and  wholly  foolish  father,  Sir  Timothy  Tough. 

8  See  Gibber's  Apology,  ed.  Lowe,  II,  91,  n.  2. 


HILL    AND    THE    STAGE  83 

British  Apollo,  April  3,  1710,®     The  theatre  is  bidden  to 
lift  up  its  head,  for  a  mighty  genius  is  now  at  the  helm : 

"  A  bard  whose  vast  capacious  soul 
Hath  innate  force  sufficient  to  control 
The  vain  assaults  of  snarling  critics,  while 
Beneath  his  auspices  you  sit  and  smile; 
As  these  he  awes,  the  rest  his  wit  alarms, 
While  the  fair  sex  are  captivated  by  his  charms." 

With  such  a  director,  the  guilty  stage  shall  be  reformed!^^ 
However  effectively  his  innate  force  controlled  the  vain 
assaults  of  snarling  critics,  it  failed  to  control  the  actors, 
incited  to  intrigue  as  they  probably  were  by  Rich,  the 
silenced  manager.  Hill  seems  to  have  shared  the  manage- 
ment with  seven  of  the  principal  actors;  but  towards  the 
end  of  the  season  he  became  displeased  watli  them  and  de- 
posed them,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  rest  of  the  company, 
w^ith  the  exception  of  Bickerstaff,  Keene,  Booth,  and  a  few 
others.  Booth  was  offered  the  post  of  manager  of  re- 
hearsals, but  he  made  the  restoration  of  the  seven  a  condi- 
tion of  his  acceptance.  Hill  chose  this  critical  moment  to 
pay  a  visit  to  Essex — this  was  the  year  of  his  marriage  with 
the  daughter  of  Edmund  Morris  of  Stratford  in  Essex — 
and  left  his  unlucky  brother  as  stage  manager.  For  some 
neglect  of  duty,  the  brother  exacted  a  fine  from  several  of 
the  players.  What  then  happened  may  be  quoted  from  the 
Neiv  History  of  the  English  Stage,  by  Percy  H.  Fitzgerald, 
who  bases  his  account  upon  a  letter  written  by  Hill  to 
Collier  :ii 

9  Vol.  Ill,  no.  3. 

10  The  number  for  April  24-26  contains  another  poem,  in  which  we 
are  assured  that 

'  *  The  Thespian  car,  triumphant,  scours  the  plains. 
Heroic  warmth  now  strikes  the  enervate  swains, 
For  Talbot  holds  the  staff,  and  strenuous  Hill  the  reins. ' ' 
11 1,  309  f.     The  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  a  private  collector. 


84  AARON    HILL 

"  They  threw  up  all  their  parts,  broke  out  into  insubordination, 
and  there  were  actually  fears  that  they  would  seize  on  the  house 
and  carry  off  '  the  eloaths.'  ]Mi\  Hill  humed  up  to  town,  and 
found  all  true,  with  this  addition — that  Mr.  Biekerstaff  had 
*  beaten  a  poor  fellow  blind  for  reproving  him  for  speaking 
scurrilously  of  me,'  and  had  actually  pushed  the  manager  off  the 
stage.  For  this  offence  'Mx.  Hill  suspended  Biekerstaff  and 
Keene,  and  when  he  remonstrated  with  the  former  and  begged 
of  him  not  to  be  '  misled  by  villains,'  *  he  went  into  defiant  revolt, 
forced  the  printer  to  put  his  name  in  the  bills,  and  told  the 
manager  that  he  did  not  value  him  nor  any  man  alive,  but  himself 
was  his  own  master.  .  .  .  Leigh,  with  an  impudence  unheard  of, 
exceeded  all  things.  He  told  me  he  would  not  only  be  a  manager, 
when  I  was  'none,  but  would  go  down  and  act  with  Pinkethman 
in  spite  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain  or  me.^^  Booth  with  a  thou- 
sand rascally  invectives  told  me  publicly  that  he  and  they  would.' 
This  foreboded  an  alarming  state  of  things,  and  it  showed  to 
what  lengths  of  insolence  the  players  could  proceed.  Meanwhile 
Hill  was  receiving  anonjniious  letters  of  warning  that  violence 
was  intended,  and  took  measures  to  protect  his  theatre.  He  told 
Stockdale,  his  deputy,  not  to  open  the  doors  for  the  performance 
until  a  '  guard  of  constables  should  arrive  to  keep  the  boxes ' 
and  protect  him  from  being  assaulted  in  the  performance  of  his 
duty.  But  when  he  went  down  that  night,  he  found  a  perfect 
riot  going  on.  Booth,  heading  a  mob,  had  burst  in  the  doors, 
and  rushed  up  the  passages  behind  the  scenes.  Then  followed  a 
scandalous  scene.  With  drawn  swords  the  infuriated  players 
rushed  into  the  manager's  office.  He  half  drew  his,  and  with 
difficulty  forced  his  way  out  into  the  passages.  '  Powell  then 
shortened  his  sword  to  stab  me  in  the  back,  but  I  was  saved  by 
a  gentleman.  Leigh  struck  my  brother  a  dangerous  blow  on  the 
head  with  a  stick.  All  this  was  in  the  open,  in  the  presence  of 
a  number  of  men  and  women  who  had  come  to  see  the  play.' 
The  hunted  director  rushed  to  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  but  unfor- 

12  Pinkethman  was  to  set  up  a  booth  in  Greenwich ;  he  did  open  on 
June  15,  and  Powell  and  Leigh  did  play.  See  Tatler,  no.  188,  June 
22,  1710,  for  a  jocular  notice  of  Pinkethman. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  85 

tunately  could  not  find  him.  Returning  to  the  theatre,  he  found 
all  the  regular  doorkeepers  replaced  by  men  appointed  by  the 
actors,  and  he  himself  was  refused  admission. 

"  Mr.  Rich  was  then  seen  to  pass  by,  who  was  greeted  with 
loud  *  hurrahs,'  his  hands  kissed  rapturously,  while  Leigh  saluted 
him :  *  God  bless  you,  master !  See,  we  are  at  work  for  you.' 
The  '  cloaths '  of  the  theatre  were  not  yet  gone,  but  were  to  be 
sent  off  the  following  day,  and  Rich  was  to  be  invited  to  take 
possession.  Hill  declared  that  the  ringleaders,  Powell  and  Leigh, 
were  to  be  taken  into  custody  and  silenced.  .  .  .  The  whole  was 
no  doubt  instigated  by  Rich,  who  seems  to  have  been  an  intriguer 
of  the  first  quality."  ^^ 

The  Tatler  had  no  doubt  of  Divito's  connection  with  the 
riot.  In  the  number  for  July  1,  1710  (no.  193),  old  Downes 
the  prompter  is  represented  as  giving  a  "notion  of  the 
present  posture  of  the  stage":  "A  gentleman  of  the  Inns 
of  Court  (Rich)  and  a  deep  intriguer  had  some  time  worked 
himself  into  the  sole  management  and  direction  of  the 
theatre.  Nor  is  it  less  notorious  that  his  restless  ambition 
and  subtle  machinations  did  manifestly  tend  to  the  extirpa- 
tion of  the  good  old  British  actors,  and  the  introduction  of 
foreign  pretenders;  such  as  harlequins,  French  dancers, 
and  Roman  singers.  .  .  .  But  his  schemes  were  soon  exposed, 
and  the  great  ones  that  supported  him  withdrawing  their 
favor,  he  made  his  exit,  and  remained  for  a  season  in  ob- 
scurity. During  this  retreat,  the  Maehiavelian  was  not 
idle,  but  secretly  fomented  divisions,  and  wrought  over  to 
his  side  some  of  the  inferior  actors,  reserving  a  trap-door  to 
himself,  to  which  only  he  had  a  key."  But  by  these  trap- 
door methods — whether  figuratively  or  literally  understood 

13  "On  14tli  June,  1710,  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  Eecords  contaui 
an  entry  which  proves  how  rebellious  the  company  were.  Powell, 
Booth,  Bickerstaff,  Keen,  and  Leigh,  are  stated  to  have  defied  and 
beaten  Aaron  Hill,  to  have  broken  open  the  doors  of  the  theatre,  and 
made  a  riot  generally.  For  this  Powell  is  discharged  and  the  others 
suspended."     Gibber's  Apology,  ed.  Lowe,  II,  94,  n.  1. 


86  AARON    HILL 

— Rich  succeeded  in  doing  little  more  than  troubling  Hill's 
peace.  He  did  not  gain  possession  of  Drury-Lane,  and  was 
obliged  to  content  himself  with  rebuilding  the  theatre  in 
Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields, — a  task  that  kept  him  harmlessly 
occupied  until  circumstances  turned  in  his  favor.^* 

After  June  6,  there  are  no  more  bills  for  that  season  at 
Drury-Lane.  The  Haymarket,  meanwhile,  with  Gibber, 
Wilks,  and  Betterton  (who  died  in  May,  1710)  directing 
the  plays,  and  McSwiney  the  operas,  was  so  prosperous  that 
it  excited  the  envy  of  Collier,  distracted  by  the  troubles  at 
Drury-Lane;  and  he  accordingly  used  his  court  influence 
to  force  McSwiney  and  his  actor-partners  to  take  Drury- 
Lane  and  give  him  the  Haymarket  and  the  opera.  The 
bargain  was  completed  in  November,  1710.^^  Knowing 
Hill's  temperament,  one  is  not  at  all  surprised  to  find  that 
he  was  so  far  from  being  dismayed  by  his  spring's  experi- 
ences that  he  was  eager  to  try  again.  He  had  a  fortune 
newly  acquired  by  his  marriage,  and  he  had  no  difficulty 
in  persuading  CoUier  to  ''farm  out"  his  "Musical  Govern- 
ment," as  Gibber  expresses  it,  at  a  rent  of  600  pounds  a 
year.^'' 

Hill's  first  enterprise  as  director  of  the  opera  was  note- 
worthy. Handel,  who  had  planned  for  some  time  to  visit 
England,  on  the  invitation  of  several  English  noblemen 
to  whom  he  had  become  known  at  the  Court  of  Hanover, 
arrived  in  London  just  at  the  opening  of  the  opera  season ; 
and  Hill,  "hearing  of  the  arrival  of  a  master,  the  fame  of 

14  When  John  Eich  opened  the  theatre  in  the  fall  of  1714,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  drawing  several  of  the  actors  away  from  Drury-Lane^  and 
among  them  were  several  of  the  rioters  of  1710 — still  faithful  to  the 
house  of  Eich. 

15  Collier  was  to  be  paid  200  pounds  by  the  comedians,  as  a  license 
for  acting  plays;  and  they  were  to  give  no  plays  on  Wednesday,  when 
that  was  an  opera  night.     Gibber's  Apology,  II,  102^  n.  1. 

iclbid.,  II,  105-106. 


HILL    AND    THE    STAGE  87 

■whose  abilities  had  already  penetrated  into  this  country, 
applied  to  him  to  compose  an  opera. "^'  The  result  was 
Binaklo,  composed  in  a  fortnight.  Giaeomo  Rossi  wrote  the 
libretto,  after  a  sketch  supplied  to  him  by  Hill,  and  Hill 
translated  it  into  English.  The  opera,  put  on  with  great 
splendor,  February  24,  1711,  was  received  with  a  degree 
of  enthusiasm  unprecedented  in  England,  and  ran  until 
June  of  that  year.  To  understand  the  significance  of  the 
event,  something  must  be  said  of  the  history  of  the  opera 
in  England  before  Handel's  arrival. 

The  death  of  Purcell  had  left  England  without  any 
musical  genius  of  her  own.  Before  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  the  taste  for  Italian  music  had  been  shown 
by  the  j^opularity  of  a  number  of  "consorts"  by  Italian 
singers.^®  The  first  opera  performed  in  the  Italian  manner 
was  Arsinoe,  an  English  version  by  Thomas  Clayton  of  an 
opera  sung  at  Bologna  in  1677 ;  it  was  presented  at  Drury- 
Lane  in  January,  1705,  by  English  singers.  Recitative  was 
used  for  the  narrative  parts,  and  measured  melody  for  the 
airs.  According  to  Burney,^^  the  opera  violated  in  every 
song  the  common  rules  of  musical  composition,  as  well  as 
the  prosody  and  accents  of  the  language;  "the  English 
must  have  hungered  and  thirsted  extremely  after  dramatic 
music  at  this  time,  to  ba  attracted  and  amused  by  such 
trash."  Bononcini's  Camilla  was  given  by  English  singers 
in  1706,  and  by  a  mixed  company  of  Italian  and  English 
the  next  year.  In  1707,  Addison  wrote  the  libretto  for 
Clayton's  Bosanwnd, — performed,  much  to  Addison's 
chagrin,  only  three  times.  TJiomyris,  a  pasticcio  of  works 
by  Scarlotti  and  Bononcini,  followed.  A  version  of  Scar- 
lotti's  Pirro   e  Demetrio  introduced  in  1708  the   famous 

i^Burney's  History  of  Music,  IV,  222. 
IS  Ibid.,  IV,  195. 
19  Ibid.,  IV,  201. 


88  AAEON   HILL 

Italian  male  soprano  Nicolini.-°  The  anonymous  Almahide 
was  the  first  opera  sung  throughout  in  Italian  (January, 
1710)  ;  Mancini's  Idaspe  fedele,  with  its  much  ridiculed 
lion,^^  and  Bononcini's  Efearco,  both  sung  entirely  in 
Italian,  complete  the  list  of  operas  before  Handel.  ' '  Opera 
had  degenerated  to  such  a  degree, ' '  according  to  the  Oxford 
History  of  Music,  ' '  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  successful 
introduction  of  Italian  opera  under  Handel.  "^^ 

Handel's  work  is  said  to  represent  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  the  opera  of  the  past — to  be  the  result  of  a  suc- 
cessful evolution.  As  for  Rinaldo  itself,  "it  is  agreed  by 
all  schools  of  later  critics  that  its  intrinsic  beauties  give 
it  special  claims  to  consideration.  .  .  .  From  its  historical  as 
well  as  musical  value,  it  would  most  probably  be  the  work 
selected  if  any  manager  should  be  found  enterprising 
enough  to  venture  on  a  revival  of  one  of  Handel's  operas 
on  the  modern  stage.  "-^  The  type  to  which  Rinaldo-^ 
belongs  was  characterized  by  very  definite  conventions, 
governing  the  kind,  number,  and  order  of  arias,  and  the 
number  and  kind  of  performers.  There  were  usually  three 
or  four  men,  at  least  one  of  them  an  artificial  soprano,  and 
three  women.     There  were  five   classes  of  arias.'^     The 

20  See  Tatler,  no.  115,  for  an  appreciation  of  his  powers  as  actor 
and  singer. 

21  See  Spectator,  no.  13. 

22  IV,  191. 

23  Oxford  Hist,  of  Music,  IV,  207. 

24  The  most  famous  air  is  the  ' '  Lascia  eh  'io  pianga, ' ' — Almirena  's 
song  on  being  taken  captive  by  Armida  (II,  4)  ;  Handel  considered 
Einaldo's  " Cara  sposa"  (I,  7)  the  best  air  he  ever  wrote;  "II  tri- 
cerbero  umiliato"  (II,  3),  sung  by  Einaldo,  was  long  popular  as  a 
drinking  song;  the  aria  for  Armida  at  the  end  of  Act  II  had  a 
harpsichord  accompaniment  played  by  Handel  himself.  See  Rockstro, 
Life  of  Handel,  62  f. 

25  The  aria  cantabile,  simple  and  sweet;  the  aria  di  portamento,  a 
slow  movement,  more  strongly  marked  in  rhythm;  the  aria  di  mezzo 
carattere,  with  a  richer  accompaniment;  the  aria  parlantc,  more 
declamatory;  and  the  aria  di  bravura,  a  display  piece. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  89 

opera  was  in  three  acts,  and  each  artist  sang  at  least  one 
aria  in  each  act;  no  performer  was  allowed  two  in  succes- 
sion. In  the  last  two  acts,  both  hero  and  heroine  had  a 
scena, — a  recitative  followed  by  a  display  aria ;  there  was  a 
grand  duet  and  a  lively  chorus  in  conclusion.  As  the  arias 
were  written  to  show  off  certain  voices,  regardless  of 
dramatic  propriety,  it  is  obvious  that  "the  librettists  were 
unable  to  treat  their  subjects  in  a  worthy  manner,  and  the 
composers  cared  little  or  nothing  about  suiting  their  music 
to  the  dramatic  emotion  of  the  words"  p®  "the  result  was  to 
kill  all  individuality,  and  even  so  strong  a  nature  as 
Handel's  own  could  not  preserve  his  identity  of  style. "-^ 

No  very  inspired  libretto  could  be  written  to  suit  such 
conventions  as  these,  and  the  Italian  and  English  verses  of 
Rossi  and  Hill  are  quite  as  inane  as  those  of  some  more 
modem  librettos.  The  argument  prefixed  by  Hill  gives  a 
sufficient  idea  of  the  story :  ' '  Godfrey,  general  of  the  Chris- 
tian forces  in  the  expedition  against  the  Saracens,  to  engage 
the  assistance  of  Rinaldo,  a  famous  hero  of  those  times, 
promises  to  give  him  his  daughter  Almirena,  when  the  city 
of  Jerusalem  should  fall  into  his  hands.  The  Christians, 
with  Rinaldo  at  their  head,  conquer  Palestine,  and  besiege 
its  king  Argantes  in  that  city.  Armida,  an  Amazonian  en- 
chantress, in  love  with  and  beloved  by  Argantes,  contrives 
by  magic  to  entrap  Rinaldo  in  an  enchanted  castle,  whence, 
after  much  difficulty,  being  delivered  by  Godfrey,  he  re- 
turns to  the  army,  takes  Jerusalem,  converts  Argantes  and 
Armida  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  marries  Almirena,  ac- 
cording to  the  promise  of  her  father  Godfrey."  The  Eng- 
lish version  is  in  blank  verse  lines  of  irregular  length,  with 
lyric  outbursts  for  the  arias;  such,  for  instance,  as  Almi- 
rena's  address  to  Rinaldo  (I,  1)  : 

26  Arthur  Elson,  A  History  of  Opera,  34,  1901.  See  also  for  char- 
acteristics outlined  here  the  Oxford  Hist,  of  Music,  TV,  204-205;  and 
W.  S.  Eockstro,  Life  of  Handel,  62-63. 

27  Oxford  Hist,  of  Music,  IV,  202. 


90  AARON    HILL 

"  Go  fight  and  succeed, 
For  each  drop  you  shall  bleed 

Will  increase  the  dear  flame  in  my  breast; 
'Tis  glory  and  fame 
Win  the  generous  dame, 

And  the  conqueror's  courtship  is  best." 

Or  the  song  of  mermaids — early  Rhine  maidens — dancing 
in  the  water  (II,  3)  : 

"  Your  lovely  May 
Of  life  when  gay, 
Youth  unheeding, 
Counsel  needing, 
Pass  away  in  love  delighting" — etc. 

Hill's  aim,  however,  had  been  to  produce,  not  a  libretto 
full  of  poetry,  but  one  with  ample  opportunity  for  scenic 
display.  He  had  determined  (as  he  informed  Ihe  Queen  in 
his  dedication)  to  devote  his  little  fortune  to  a  trial 
"whether  such  a  noble  entertainment,  in  its  due  magnifi- 
cence," could  fail  "in  a  city  the  most  capable  of  Europe 
both  to  relish  and  support  it.  .  .  .  The  deficiencies  I  found 
...  in  such  Italian  operas  as  have  hitherto  been  introduced 
among  us  were :  first,  that  they  had  been  composed  for 
tastes  and  voices  different  from  those  who  were  to  sing  and 
hear  them  on  the  English  stage ;  and  secondly,  that  wanting 
the  machines  and  decorations,  which  bestow  so  great  beauty 
on  their  appearance,  they  have  been  heard  and  seen  to  very 
considerable  disadvantage."  He  chose  a  subject  that  would 
afford  scope  to  the  music  and  fill  the  eye  as  well, — a  story 
out  of  Tasso,-^  already  used  in  opera  in  Europe;  Handel 

28  Hill  was  interested  in  Tasso  at  this  time.  In  the  preface  to 
Elf  rid,  he  mentions  him  with  enthusiasm  and  adds:  "As  a  proof  of 
the  veneration  I  profess  to  his  memory,  I  have  attempted  a  trans- 
lation of  his  Godfrey  of  Bulloign,  and  shall  very  suddenly  publish  a 
specimen  and  proposal  for  printing  it  by  subscription."  He  probably 
never  carried  the  plan  out,  but  may  have  utilized  some  of  his  material 


HILL    AND    THE   STAGE  91 

did  his  part  with  the  music,  and  Hill  did  his  with  the 
stage  setting.  And  indeed,  the  scenic  effects  are  impressive 
even  to  read  about:  Argantes  rides  in  a  triumphal  car, 
drawn  by  white  horses  led  by  armed  blackamoors;  Armida 
appears  in  the  air,  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  two  huge  dragons, 
out  of  whose  mouths  issue  fire  and  smoke ;  a  black  cloud 
filled  with  dreadful  monsters  conceals  Almirena  and 
Armida,  and  then  passes  away,  leaving  two  frightful  furies 
to  mock  Rinaldo;  a  delightful  garden  in  the  enchanted 
palace  contains  a  grove  full  of  singing  birds;  "a  mountain 
horribly  steep,"  crowned  by  the  blazing  battlements  of  the 
enchanted  castle,  and  guarded  by  rows  of  ugly  spirits, 
opens  to  swallow  the  soldiers,  "with  thunder  and  lightning 
and  amazing  noises ' ' ;  the  crystal  gate  of  the  palace,  struck 
by  a  magic  wand,  vanishes,  the  mountain  disappears,  and 
Godfrey  and  Eustatio  find  themselves  on  the  side  of  a  rock 
in  mid-ocean. 

All  these  wonders  were  heralded  by  the  British  Apollo. 
The  number  for  December  15-18,  1710,^"  contains  a  poem 
in  the  form  of  question  and  answer,  on  the  talked-of  im- 
provements at  the  Haymarket:  the  ear  is  to  hear  new 
voices  from  foreign  parts,  the  eye  to  behold  new  beauties — 

"  Groves  in  natural  foims  appear, 
While  their  inmates  charm  the  ear. 


Nay,  machines,  they  say,  will  move 
Glorious  regions  from  above." 

The  reply  confirms  these  rumors: 

"  The  ruler  of  the  stage,  we  find,   (Aaron  Hill,  Esq.) 
A  youth  of  vast  extended  mind; 
No  disappointments  can  control 
The  emanations  of  his  soul; 

in  the  libretto.    William  Bond  also  was  interested  iu  Tasso.    See  eh.  V 
for  Bond. 

29  Vol.  Ill,  no.  115. 


92  AARON   HILL 

But  through  all  lets  will  boldly  run, 
Uncurbed,  like  th'  horses  of  the  sun  " — etc. 

The  Spectator,  on  the  other  hand,  was  inclined  to  be  con- 
temptuous, but  Addison's  railleries  were  no  doubt  partly 
inspired  by  the  memory  of  Rosamond's  failure.^"  Mr. 
Spectator^^  saw  a  man  carrying  a  cage  of  birds,  which  he 
discovered  were  destined  for  the  opera,  to  represent  the 
singing  birds  in  Act  I,  1;  the  real  singing  was  to  be  per- 
formed by  the  flageolets.  The  opera,  he  goes  on,  is  an 
agreeable  entertainment  for  the  winter,  filled  as  it  is  ''with 
thunder  and  lightning,  illuminations  and  fireworks ;  which 
the  audience  may  look  upon  without  catching  cold,  and 
indeed  without  much  danger  of  being  burnt ;  for  there  are 
several  engines  filled  with  water,  and  ready  to  play  at  a 
moment's  warning."  It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  Hill's 
management  did  not  neglect  the  necessary  fire  precautions. 
Addison  makes  fun  of  Rossi's  Italian,  and  at  his  calling 
Handel  the  "Orpheus  of  our  age";  says  that  it  is  no 
wonder  the  scenes  are  surprising,  contrived  as  they  are  by 
two  poets  of  different  nations;  belittles  Tasso;  and  con- 
cludes by  mentioning  a  treaty  on  foot  to  furnish  Rinaldo 
with  an  orange  grove  and  with  tom-tits  for  song-birds. 
The  libretto  was  legitimate  game  for  Mr.  Spectator,  as  the 
absurdities  of  the  operatic  convention  continue  to  be  for 
anyone  who  cares  to  dwell  on  them ;  but  in  selecting  Handel 
as  the  butt  of  his  ridicule,  he  was  rather  unfortunate.  Hill 
could  very  well  afford  not  to  mind  the  Spectator. 

Hill's  emphasis  on  the  machinery  might  lead  one  to  think 
that  his  ideas  of  opera  did  not  go  very  far  beyond  the 
spectacular.  But  that  would  be  a  mistake.  He  grew  to 
recognize  clearly  enough  the  deficiencies  of  Italian  opera, 
and   began   about   1725   to   express  the   hope   that   "our 

30  See  Burney,  IV,  227. 

31  See  nos.  5,  18,  and  29. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  93 

emasculating  present  taste  of  the  Italian  luxury  and 
wantonness  of  music  will  give  way  to  a  more  passionate  and 
animated  kind  of  opera,  where  not  only  the  eye  and  ear 
may  expect  to  be  charmed,  but  the  heart  to  be  touched  and 
transported."^-  He  begged  Handel,^^  just  at  the  time 
when  the  latter  was  abandoning  opera  for  oratorio,  to  let 
England  owe  to  his  genius  "the  establishment  of  music 
upon  a  foundation  of  good  poetry ;  where  the  excellence  of 
the  sound  should  be  no  longer  dishonored  by  the  poorness 
of  the  sense  it  is  chained  to.  My  meaning  is  that  you 
would  be  resolute  enough  to  deliver  us  from  our  Italian 
bondage;  and  demonstrate  that  English  is  soft  enough  for 
opera,  when  composed  by  poets  who  know  how  to  dis- 
tinguish the  sweetness  of  our  tongue  from  the  strength  of 
it,  where  the  last  is  less  necessary.  I  am  of  opinion  that 
male  and  female  voices  may  be  found  in  this  kingdom, 
capable  of  everything  that  is  requisite;  and  I  am  sure  a 
species  of  dramatic  opera  might  be  invented  that,  by  recon- 
ciling reason  and  dignity  with  music  and  fine  machinery, 
would  charm  the  ear  and  hold  fast  the  heart  together. ' '  I 
dare  say  Hill  would  have  been  willing,  as  poet,  to  col- 
laborate with  Handel,  though  he  refrained  from  saying  so 
in  this  letter, — a  mere  note  of  acknowledgment  for  some 
complimentary  tickets.  He  was  in  accord  with  many  of  his 
contemporaries  in  denouncing  the  wantonness  and  lack  of 
reason  of  the  Italian  music ;  but  unlike  most  of  them,  he  had 
in  his  mind  the  ideal  not  only  of  dramatic  opera — an  ideal 
that  did  not  begin  to  be  realized  until  the  production  of 
Gluck's  Orfeo — but  of  dramatic  opera  in  English — an  ideal 
still  very  imperfectly  realized.^* 

32  Tlain  Dealer,  no.  94. 

33  Letter  of  December  5,  1732,  WorVs,  1,  115. 

34  Of  the  two  classes  of  people  defined  in  the  Oxford  Hist,  of 
Music  (IV,  190),  iTill  apparently  belonged  to  the  first:  "almost  ever 
since  the  invention  of  opera,  a  ceaseless  struggle  has  gone  on  between 


94  AARON    HILL 

Hill  deserves  all  praise  for  engaging  Handel  to  write  his 
first  composition  in  England,  and  for  helping  to  make  thj 
venture  successful.  But  with  the  ill-luck  that  overtook  his 
plans  even  when  his  own  judgment  was  not  at  fault,  he 
was  not  allowed  to  reap  the  benefit  of  this  operatic  triumph. 
Collier  was  a  restless  and  unreliable  person  in  stage  affairs 
— always  dissatisfied  with  his  own  share,  always  envious  of 
the  success  of  others.  He  now  resumed  the  management  of 
the  opera,  for  reasons  rather  vaguely  indicated  by  the 
theatrical  historians.  According  to  Gibber,  "before  the 
season  was  ended  (upon  what  occasion,  if  I  could  remember, 
it  might  not  be  material  to  say)  he  took  it  into  his  Hands 
again.  "^^  And  Dibdin's  account^*'  is  that  when  Collier 
found  out  that  Hill's  management  was  bringing  in  con- 
siderable profit,  he  "somehow  or  other  found  out  an  in- 
formality in  the  agreement,  and  took  the  property  back  to 
himself  before  the  season  was  over;  while  Hill,  who  was  too 
wuse  or  too  powerless  to  contend  with  him,  relinquished 
his  right  without  murmuring."  Collier  with  his  Tory  in- 
fluence seems  to  have  been  able  to  shift  the  pieces  on  the 
chess-board  to  suit  his  convenience.  But  this  last  move 
gave  him  no  advantage.  Handel  returned  to  Hanover  in 
the  summer.  The  opera  did  not  prosper  the  next  season, 
and  Collier  cast  longing  eyes  at  the  theatre.  Early  in 
1712,  poor  McSwiney  had  the  opera,  in  a  sinking  condition, 
thrown  back  upon  his  hands;  and  he  became  so  involved 
that  in  January  1713,  he  was  forced  to  leave  the  country 
for  twenty  years.  Collier  secured  a  new  license  for  him- 
self, Wilks,   Cibber,   and  Dogget,  and   presently  left  the 

those  who  regard  it  as  an  ideal  means  of  stirring  human  emotion  by 
the  dramatic  representation  of  great  deeds  or  tragic  motives,  and 
those  who  look  upon  it  as  an  expensive  amusement,  a  vehicle  for  per- 
sonal display,  or  a  means  of  ostentation." 

3".  Apology,  II,  105-106. 

36  Stage,  IV,  387. 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  95 

management  to  the  actors  for  a  consideration  of  700  pounds 
a  year. 

Until  1716,  Hill  was  fully  occupied  with  his  beech-oil, 
]\Ieanwhile,  the  accession  of  George  I  (1714)  had  had 
several  interesting  effects  on  the  theatrical  situation:  "on 
the  change  of  the  ministry,  Collier  became  a  nonentity  ;^'^ 
the  actors  easily  brought  about  his  removal ;  and  knowing 
that  some  one  would  demand  his  pension,  they  selected 
Steele  to  be  his  successor,  because  of  his  influence  with  the 
new  government  and  his  well-known  friendliness  to  the 
stage.  In  October,  1714,  Steele  secured  a  new  license  for 
himself,  Wilks,  Gibber,  and  Booth  (w^hose  success  in  Cato 
had  brought  him  into  the  management),  and  converted  this 
a  few  months  later  into  a  patent  for  his  life-time  and  three 
years  after.  "Divito"  the  intriguer  had  no  difficulty  in 
getting  the  order  of  silence  withdrawn,  but  his  death  soon 
afterwards  left  it  to  his  son,  John  Rich,  to  open  Lincoln 's- 
Inn-Fields  in  December,  1714. 

Hill  turned  again  to  tragedy  after  the  beech-mast  failure. 
Possibly  the  complicated  and  dismal  plot  of  The  Fatal 
Vision,  or  the  Fall  of  Siam,  reflects  his  state  of  mind  at  this 
time.  The  new  manager  accepted  the  play,  and  it  had  its 
first  performance  at  Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields  theatre  on  Feb- 
ruary 7,  1716,  and  its  seventh  and  last  on  March  6.  At  this 
time,  practically  no  new  tragedies  were  being  produced  at 
either  theatre,  though  new  farces  and  comedies  appeared 
occasionally  among  the  stock  plays  of  Vanbrugh,  Congreve, 
Shadwell,  Wycherley,  and  Farquhar;  Rowe,  Southerne, 
Otway,  Lee,  Dryden,  and  Shakespeare  satisfied  the  demand 
for  tragedy.  This  was  a  state  of  affairs  far  from  satis- 
factory to  one  who  was  himself  a  playwright,  and  Hill's 
opinion  about  this  and  other  matters  appears  in  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  play  to  Dennis  and  Gildon.     He  writes,  he  says, 

37  Genest,  II,  545. 


96  AARON   HILL 

only  for  pleasure  and  to  display  his  ideas;  he  is  already 
convinced  of  the  stupidity  of  the  modern  audience,  and  yet 
he  scarcely  blames  them  for  their  failure  to  be  moved  by 
the  "affected,  vicious  and  unnatural  tone  of  voice,  so  com- 
mon on  our  stages."  How  can  passion  be  expressed  by  in- 
discriminate ranting?  If  in  one  man  could  be  united  Mr. 
Gibber's  assurance,  Mr.  Wilks's  brisk  and  lively  spirit  and 
soft  address,  Mr.  Keene's  majesty,  and  Mr.  Booth's  sweet 
voice  and  just  accent,^^  there  would  be  some  hope  for 
authors.  In  The  Fatal  Vision  Hill  tried,  according  to  his 
own  account,  to  reconcile  the  ancient  and  the  modern  types : 
he  wished  to  be  as  regular  as  the  French  and  observe  the 
rules  with  "all  the  necessary  strictness,"  and  as  lively  as 
the  Elizabethans — ^that  is,  "indulge  the  common  taste  for 
fulness  of  design,"  He  thinks  it  the  first  endeavor  of  the 
kind;  and  so  perhaps  it  was,  though  attempts  to  confine 
Shakespeare  within  the  rules  had  been  going  on  for  some 
time.  The  result  in  a  new  tragedy  is  even  more  astonish- 
ing than  in  the  Shakespearean  alterations.  The  Fatal 
Vision  is  built,  declares  its  author,  "upon  the  most  variety 
of  turns,  and  has  a  deeper  and  more  surprising  plot  than 
any  play  which  has  been  published,  that  I  know  of,  in  the 
English  tongue";  and  he  has  found  room,  too,  for  "topical 
reflection,  large  description,  love,  war,  show,  and  passion." 
Why  need  order  confine  the  range  of  a  poet's  fancy? 
China  offered  a  fruitful  field  for  the  wandering  of  his 
fancy,  because  our  ideas  of  it  are  so  dark,  and  it  is  so  remote 
from  present  fashions. 

The  plot  must  be  read  to  be  appreciated — no  summary 
can  do  it  justice.  There  is  an  emperor  of  China,  his  two 
sons,  a  captive  princess  of  Siam,  a  captive  general  of  Siam 
in  love  (as  are  both  the  Chinese  princes)  with  the  princess; 

38  Hill  evidently  bore  Booth  no  malice  for  his  part  in  the  1710  riot; 
they  were  the  best  of  friends  in  later  life. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  97 

there  is  Selim,  the  emperor's  eunuch,  who  in  Act  II  is  dis- 
covered to  be  the  long  since  banished  empress — banished 
because  of  a  prophecy  that  she  would  bear  a  third  son  who 
would  kill  his  father;  the  captive  general  turns  out  to  be 
this  third  son.  Through  a  misunderstanding  too  com- 
plicated to  explain  briefly,  the  emperor  suspects  the  two 
princes  of  treachery,  and  dooms  them  to  death ;  the  eunuch 
and  the  Siamese  general  (or  the  empress  and  her  son)  plan 
to  rescue  them,  and  to  that  end  turn  loose  the  captive 
Siamese  soldiery,  who,  ignorant  of  the  family  secrets,  not 
unnaturally  take  the  opportunity  to  kill  off  the  Chinese 
royal  family,  leaving  the  third  son  and  the  princess  to 
marrj^  and  occupy  the  two  thrones.  For  ''large  descrip- 
tion," we  have  an  account  by  the  princes  of  the  defeat  of 
Siam — where  "mingling  deaths  effaced  the  flowery  sweet- 
ness of  the  plain";  and  one  in  Act  III  of  a  storm  and 
shipwreck;  an  elephant  who  took  part  in  the  battle  does 
not  deserve  to  be  forgotten : 

"  the  roused  elephant 
Rears  his  huge  trunk  for  battle;  gTins  with  wrath, 
And  inly  rimiinates  the  promised  ruin." 

Is  there  another  elephant  like  that?  For  the  vehicle  of 
topical  reflection,  there  is  a  hermit,  whom  the  captive 
princess  discovers  reading  and  soliloquizing  about  Alex- 
ander the  Great — a  fruitful  theme  for  meditation.  Surely 
the  "common  taste  for  fulness  of  design"  ought  to  have 
been  gratified  by  The  Fatal  Vision. 

Another  period  of  absorption  in  commercial  projects  fol- 
lowed, and  it  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  1721  that 
Hill's  attention  turned  once  more  to  the  stage.  His  motive 
in  writing  his  next  play  was  purely  philanthropic.  A 
Scotch  friend  of  his,  Joseph  Mitchell  the  poet,  was  in  dis- 
tress ;  and  Hill,  probably  unable  to  assist  him  with  money, 
wrote  Tlie  Fatal  Extravagance,  permitted  Mitchell  to  call 
8 


98  AARON    HILL 

himself  the  author,  had  the  play  put  on  at  Lincoln 's-Inn- 
Fields  (April  12,  1721),-^  and  supported  it  on  the  supposed 
author's  third  night.***  It  was  afterwards  included  in 
Hill's  Dramatic  Works.  The  preface,  written  in  Mitchell's 
name,  states  that  Shakespeare's  Yorkshire  Tragedy,  which 
furnished  the  hint  for  the  play,  was  put  into  his  hands  by 
his  "good  friend,  Mr.  Hill,  to  whom  I  take  this  occasion 
of  expressing  my  gratitude  in  the  most  public  manner  I 
can.  ...  I  owe  much  in  the  scheme,  in  the  sentiments,  and 
language  of  this  piece  to  the  direction  of  that  accomplished 
gentleman."  This  is  a  virtual  admission  of  Hill's  author- 
ship.*^ Later,  Mitchell  made  the  play  in  a  manner  his  own, 
"improving"  it  into  five  acts  by  the  addition  of  several 
new  characters  and  episodes.  The  additions  are  not  an 
improvement;  the  one-act  play  is,  as  the  author  of  the 
sketch  in  Gibber's  Lives  says,*-  one  of  Hill's  best.  "I 
know  not  if  Mr.  Hill  has  anywhere  touched  the  passions 
with  so  great  a  mastery." 

The  play  belongs  in  the  class  of  domestic  tragedies,  and 
took  its  inspiration  from  the  South  Sea  frenzy.*^  Hill,  in 
the  prologue,  proclaims  how  unworthy  of  compassion  are 
the  "rants  of  ruined  Kings": 

"  Empires  o'ertumed,  and  heroes  held  in  chains, 
Alann  the  mind,  but  give  the  heart  no  pains. 

39  The  play  was  performed  at  L.I.F.  April  22,  1721;  January  11, 
1722;  May  2,  1723;  February  21,  1730;  at  Dublin  in  1721;  and  at 
Covent  Garden,  for  Mitchell's  benefit,  November  25,  1734. 

40  Victor's  Hist,  of  Theatres,  II,  123;  Gibber's  Lives,  IV,  349. 

41  It  is  said  that  Mitchell  undeceived  the  world,  and  made  known 
the  real  author  of  the  play,  and  that  he  took  "every  proper  occasion 
to  express  his  gratitude  and  celebrate  his  patron. ' ' 

42  IV,  349. 

43  According  to  the  prologue  written  on  the  revival  of  the  play 
in  1729. 


HILL    AND    THE   STAGE  99 

Not  SO,  when  from  such  passions  as  our  own, 
Some  favorite  folly's  dreadful  fate  is  shown." 

Bellmour,  addicted  to  gambling,  loses  his  entire  fortune 
and  that  of  his  friend  in  speculation.  When  the  play 
opens,  he  hears  of  his  friend's  arrest  for  debt,  and  is  soon 
forced  himself  to  face  the  cruel  creditor,  Bargrave,  Find- 
ing entreaties  useless,  and  maddened  by  Bargrave 's  taunts^ 
Bellmour  forces  him  to  a  duel  and  kills  him.  Urged  by 
his  wife  to  escape,  he  walks  apart  for  a  moment  to  consider, 
but  decides  instead  to  kill  himself,  his  wife,  and  children, 
justifying  his  dreadful  resolve  by  various  desperate  argu- 
ments.** The  wife  and  children,  in  their  ignorance,  drink 
the  cordial  he  prepares  for  them ;  he  then  undeceives  her, 
and  kills  himself.  Courtney,  the  uncle,  however,  had  seen 
the  fatal  cup,  suspected  poison,  and  substituted  some  harm- 
less drink.  News  of  a  bequest  that  will  keep  his  family 
from  want  cheers  Bellmour 's  last  moments.  The  action  is 
rapid  and  the  play  -readable.*^  Mitchell  said  in  the  preface 
to  the  fourth  edition  that  it  "took,"  and  Mallet  wrote  to 

4*  Such  as,  ' '  He  who  beggars  his  posterity  begets  a  race  to  curse 
him. ' ' 

■15  The  scene  where  Bellmour  tells  his  wife  of  his  resolve  to  take  the 
journey  she  has  urged  upon  him  is  effective,  with  its  touch  of 
dramatic  irony: 

B.     "1  have  bethought  me  of  a  means  to  evade 

The  malice  of  my  fortune.     'Twill  be  a  journey 

A  little  longer  than  thy  love  could  wish  it. 

Yet  not  so  far  but  we  shall  meet  again. 
L.     "  O,  be  the  distance  wide  as  pole  from  pole, 

Let  me  but  follow  thee  and  I  am  blessed. 
B.     "It  shall  be  so,  Louisa. 
L.  "A  thousand  angels 

Spread  their  wings  o  'er  thee,  and  protect  thy  steps. 

Xow  thou  art  kind! — But  the  dear  little  ones, 

Shall  they  go  too? 
B.  "  All !  All !  shall  go !  " 


100  AARON   HILL 

Ker  that  it  was  acted  with  a  great  deal  of  applause.*®  So 
it  must  have  achieved  its  end  in  relieving  the  poet's  neces- 
sities. 

The  success  of  this  play  probably  brightened  Hill's  views 
on  theatrical  affairs,  which  were  just  then  entering  upon 
a  new  phase.  In  January,  1720,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
Lord  Chamberlain,  had  closed  Drury-Lane,  to  punish  Steele 
for  the  stand  he  had  taken  on  the  Peerage  Bill, — a  stand 
opposed  to  that  of  most  of  his  party.  Of  course,  the 
ostensible  reason  for  the  action  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain 
had  nothing  to  do  with  politics.  Steele  remonstrated,  but 
was  forbidden  to  write  or  speak  to  Newcastle.  He  stated 
his  case  in  the  Theatre,  of  which  the  first  number  came  out 
on  January  2,  1720;  and  in  its  columns,  and  in  the  pam- 
phlets written  against  him,  the  question  of  the  validity  of 
the  Lord  Chamberlain's  action  in  overriding  the  patent  was 
discussed.  Steele  claimed  that  his  patent  was  a  freehold, 
and  quoted  legal  authorities,  but  to  no  purpose.  The  actors 
themselves  submitted,  and  received  a  license  to  play,  but 
Steele  Avas  not  restored  to  his  place  as  controller  until  the 
friendly  Walpole  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in 
May,  1721.^^  The  point  of  interest  in  this  dispute  was  its 
effect  on  the  theatrical  monopoly.  The  Crown  had  not 
hesitated  in  Rich's  case  and  in  Steele's  to  disregard  patent 
rights,  and  issue  licenses  or  silencing  orders  as  it  saw  fit. 
Of  the  patentees,  Steele  alone  seriously  questioned  the 
Crown's  prerogative,  and  he  had  been  conspicuously  de- 
feated. The  result  was  the  rise,  between  1720  and  1737,  of 
unlicensed  minor  theatres :  patent  rights  were  regarded  as 
inferior  to  the  authority  of  managers,  and  private  specula- 
tion  was   stimulated   by   the   prosperity   of   Drury-Lane. 

46  September  3,  1721. 

47  See  Aitken's  Life  of  Steele,  II,  221  f.  On  December  19,  1719, 
Gibber  was  forbidden  to  act,  and  various  explanations  were  given  of 
his  offence. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  lOl 

"Within  a  decade  after  1720,  London  boasted  half  a  dozen 
theatres,  and  every  street  had  its  theatrical  booth  where 
performances  similar  to  those  at  the  other  theatres  might 
be  seen."*^  The  two  unlicensed  theatres  that  became  most 
famous  were  the  Little  Theatre  in  the  Haymarket,  the  scene 
of  the  production  of  Fielding's  farces,  and  Goodman's 
Fields,  where  in  1741  Garrick  made  his  first  London  ap- 
pearance. 

Among  the  first  to  appreciate  the  opportunity  apparently 
offered  to  open  a  theatre  without  a  patent  w'as  Hill.  In 
1720,  the  Little  Theatre  in  the  Haymarket  was  built  as  a 
speculation  by  one  Potter,  a  carpenter,  who  relied  on  its 
being  hired  for  dramatic  exhibitions.*^  On  December  29, 
1720,  a  newspaper  advertisement  announced  the  opening  of 
the  house  with  ' '  La  Fille  a  la  mode,  ou  le  Badaud  de  Paris, ' ' 
"under  the  patronage  of  a  distinguished  nobleman,  the 
company  calling  themselves  'the  French  Comedians  of  his 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Montague.'  "^^  This  French  specula- 
tion languished  and  on  May  4,  1721,  came  to  an  end.  Very 
shortly  afterwards,  Hill  must  have  begun  to  get  a  company 
together.  Rich  remonstrated  and  quoted  his  patent  privi- 
leges, but  Hill  replied"^  that  his  pretence  to  exclusive  power 
reminded  him  of  "a  poor  merry  fellow,  who  used  to  sleep 
when  he  was  hungry,  in  hopes  to  dream  of  a  surfeit, ' '  He 
was,  however,  willing  to  compromise :  "  I  suppose  you  know 
that  the  Duke  of  Montague  and  I  have  agreed,  and  that  I 
am  to  have  that  house  half  the  week,  and  his  French  vermin 
the  other  half ;  but  I  would  forbear  acting  at  all  there  this 

48  Nicholson,  Struggle  for  a  Free  Stage,  etc.,  21. 

49Genest,  III,  159.     Genest's  first  bill  is  dated  December  12,  1723. 

50  H.  Barton  Baker,  The  London  Stage,  1,  173-174.  Fitzgerald, 
Neiv  Hist,  of  the  Eng.  Stage,  II,  98-99,  notes  an  advertisement  of 
December  15,  1720,  announcing  the  expected  arrival  of  the  French 
company. 

51  September  9,  1721,  Worlcs,  II,  46  f. 


102  AARON    HILL 

season,  if  you  will  let  me  your  house  for  two  nights  a  week 
in  Lent,  and  three  a  week  after.  On  all  those  nights  I  will 
pay  full  actual  charge  of  your  company  and  my  own,  and 
either  give  you  a  sum  certain,  or  share  the  remainder  with 
you.  I  will  use  your  music,  your  doorkeepers,  etc.  But 
the  players,  the  scenes,  and  the  clothes  shall  be  my  own. 
.  .  .  My  own  company's  affairs  permit  me  not  to  wait  long 
for  an  answer." 

The  rest  of  the  story  is  told  in  several  long  letters  that 
Hill  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Montague  in  January,  1722.^^ 
It  seems  that  the  new  company  was  then  ready  to  open  at 
the  Little  Theatre,  to  act  English  tragedy — a  design  in 
which  Colonel  Horsey  and  some  other  gentlemen  were  con- 
cerned with  Hill.  But  the  Duke's  Frenchmen  had  come 
back.  "Before  the  Frenchmen  came  over,"  Hill  tells  his 
Grace,  "I  made  an  absolute  agreement  with  Mr.  Potter  for 
the  House,  and  undertook  to  pay  him  540  pounds  for  two 
seasons.  And  when  he  first  talked  with  me  of  the  French 
Actors'  design  to  come  over,  I  consented,  on  condition  they 
should  act  there  but  ten  nights,  and  take  all  those  nights 
within  the  month  of  November.  Now,  they  came  not  only 
much  later  than  they  agreed,  but  have  greatly  exceeded 
their  number  of  nights  already.  And  the  English  Com- 
pany being  now  ready  for  opening,  I  have  warned  them 
that  they  can  have  liberty  to  act  at  that  House  no  longer 
than  Tuesday  next.  But  they  may  certainly  get  permission 
to  act  two  or  three  times  a  week  at  the  Opera  House. ' '  He 
would  not  have  mentioned  the  matter  to  his  Grace,  but  for 
the  fact  that  the  Frenchmen  used  his  name  as  their  en- 
courager  and  patron ;  and  he  appeals  to  the  justice  of  his 
Grace  in  this  difficulty.  His  Grace,  who  is  said  to  have  been 
a  man  of  some  talent  but  with  much  of  the  buffoon  about 

r>2Hist.  MS.  Comm.,  IX,  369-370.  The  dates  of  Hill's  letters  are 
January  20,  January  21^  and  January  24. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  103 

him,  has  gone  down  to  history  as  the  author  of  a  famous 
hoax  on  the  public  at  the  Haymarket  Theatre  in  1749.^^ 
Hill  was  apparently  the  victim  of  one  of  the  Duke's  jokes, 
for  he  wrote  the  next  day :  "  I  am  sorry,  my  Lord,  to  dis- 
cern, by  the  turn  of  your  Grace's  letter,  that  there  is  some 
very  great  mistake,  which  from  a  person  of  your  good- 
nature, humanity,  and  love  of  justice,  could  occasion  me  a 
treatment  so  undeserved.  ...  I  writ  to  you  in  mere  respect, 
because  the  French  used  your  name.  I  was  far  from  even 
supposing  it  true  that  you  knew  anything  of  them — much 
less  that  they  were  your  servants.  And  so  little  did  I 
dream  that  the  House  itself  was  your  Grace's,  that  in  my 
covenant  with  Potter,  I  agreed  that  all  the  rent  which  the 
French  Players  should  pay  till  I  was  ready  to  open,  and 
what  he  should  weekly  receive  afterwards  from  me,  should 
be  ...  in  discharge  of  a  sum  which  he  told  me  you  had 
promised  to  see  paid,  if  the  old  French  Company  did  not 
pay  it. ' '  Thus  his  bargain  with  Potter  seemed  to  be  really 
to  the  Duke's  advantage.  He  begs  the  Duke  to  inform  him 
if  there  is  anything  "dark"  in  Potter's  proceedings. 
"Again,  therefore,  I  must  earnestly  entreat  your  Grace  to 
reflect  on  the  resolution  you  are  taking  to  refuse  me  admis- 
sion to  the  House,  after  a  very  great  expense  of  money  and 
time  for  making  and  painting  entire  new  sets  of  scenes,  and 
clothes,  all  which  are  now  ready,  as  also  in  getting  together 
an  entire  new  Company  of  actors,  fit  for  Tragedy,  most  of 
whom  .  .  .  are  persons  of  some  character  and  distinction; 
and  at  least  a  better  company  than  either  of  the  old  ones. 
...  It  is  a  daily  and  intolerable  loss  which  I  am  kept  at, 
unless  your  Grace  shall  be  so  good  as  to  change  your  resolu- 
tion. For,  whatever  right  the  law  may  give  me,  I  know 
not ;  but  I  am  sure  I  shall  never  put  that  to  the  trial,  if  I 

53  See  Baker,   The  London   Stage,   I,   183.     The  audience  was  so 
angry  at  the  hoax  that  it  nearly  broke  up  the  theatre. 


104  AARON   HILL 

must  have  your  Grace  for  my  enemy."  He  suggests  an 
arrangement  with  the  French  players,  and  even  offers  to 
pay  part  of  their  rent  at  the  Opera  House. 

His  Grace's  reply  filled  Hill  with  amazement:  "I  must 
acknowledge  that  you  have  done  nothing  for  support  of  the 
poor  Frenchmen  but  what  your  honour  and  your  charity 
obliged  you  to.  All  I  could  wish  to  have  been  otherwise  is, 
that  my  reputation  had  stood  so  well  in  your  Grace's 
opinion  as  to  have  merited  this  notice  before  you  took  those 
measures,  which  have  made  much  noise  in  Town,  and  which 
I  should  then  have  made  unnecessary."  To  the  Duke's 
suggestion  that  Hill  try  the  Opera  House,  Hill  points  out 
that  he  has  had  scenery  painted — "after  a  model  perfectly 
out  of  the  general  road  of  scenery" — that  fits  only  the  stage 
of  the  Little  Theatre.  He  begs  the  privilege,  in  case  he 
can  make  no  arrangement  at  the  other  house,  of  having  the 
use  of  the  Haymarket  on  certain  nights ;  he  will  not  inter- 
fere with  the  French ; ' '  and  when  your  Grace  shall  acquaint 
them  how  Potter's  double-dealing  has  been  the  occasion  of 
all  this,  they  will  no  longer  mistake  me  for  an  enemy ;  I 
will  take  particular  care  that  they  are  used  with  all  possible 
civility. ' ' 

But  evidently  the  double-dealing  carpenter  and  the 
merry  Duke  did  nothing  to  help  Hill  out,  and  the  scheme 
fell  through. 

Probably  his  alteration  of  Henry  V,  for  which  he  had 
had  new  scenery  painted,  was  the  tragedy  Hill  had  ready 
for  his  company;  but  when  it  was  produced  (December  5, 
1723),  it  was  under  the  protection  of  the  patent  at  Drury- 
Lane,  with  Booth  and  Mrs.  Oldfield  in  the  leading  roles. 
Henry  V  had  not  been  acted  since  the  Restoration,  although 
the  comic  scenes  had  been  worked  up  into  a  farce,  under 
the  title  of  Half -Pay  Officers.^*     One  can  foretell  with  some 

54  Produced  at  L.I.F.  January  11,  1720  (Genest). 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  105 

accuracy  what  18th  century  adapters  will  cut  out  of  a 
Shakespearean  play;  but  only  a  genius  akin  to  their  own 
can  conceive  what  they  will  put  in.  So,  although  we  might 
expect  Hill  to  omit  Fluellen,  Gower,  Pistol  and  the  rest, 
and  even  parts  of  the  Princess  Katherine's  conversation 
with  Alice,  nothing  can  prepare  us  for  the  appearance  of 
a  lady  once  betrayed  by  the  king,  the  revengeful  Harriet, 
who  roams  about  the  camp  disguised  as  a  page,  acts  as 
emissary  between  the  English  conspirators  and  the 
Dauphin,  assumes  the  role  of  Viola  in  an  interview  with 
Katherine  (when  she  speaks  of  her  own  case  as  that  of  her 
sister),  and  is  finally  so  touched  by  Henry's  platitudes 
about  his  undiminished  love  and  his  kingly  responsibilities 
that  she  reveals  the  conspiracy  and  then  stabs  herself.^^ 
Henry's  youthful  follies,  in  this  lady's  account,  assume 
startling  proportions :  his  time  has  been  spent,  not  in 
tavern-drinking  and  playing  practical  jokes  on  Falstaff,  but 
in  working  devastation  among  the  maidens  of  England — he 
has  ruined  "countless  crowds  of  beauties."  When  Harriet 
first  appears,  her  uncle.  Lord  Scroop,  urges  her  to  be 
reasonable;  "reason?"  she  cries,  "I  detest  it!" 

"  Calm  ?     No — let  cottage  fools  with  helpless  sighs 
Bewail  their  ruined  innocence.      My  soul, 
Full  charged  with  hate  and  pride,  breaks  out  in  passion, 
Bold  as  my  wrongs  and  dreadful  as  my  purpose." 

The  "gentle  Harriet"  talks  in  this  strain  all  the  time. 
Hill's  Katherine  bears  no  resemblance  to  Shakespeare's, — 
she  is,  of  course,  much  more  refined.     Hill  represents  her  as 

55  The  platitudes  are  to  this  effect : 

' '  Still  I  regard  thee  with  the  same  desires, 
Gaze  with'  the  same  transporting  pleasure  on  thee, 
As  when  our  bounding  souls  first  flew  together. 
And  mingled  raptures  in  consenting  softness. 
But  kings  must  have  no  wishes  for  themselves ' ' — etc. 


106  AAEON    HILL 

already  in  love  with  a  mysterious  stranger,  whose  addresses 
and  unnamed  perfections  had  charmed  her  listening  soul  a 
year  before;  this  turns  out  to  be  Henry — her  high-beating 
heart  recognizes  his  voice  immediately.  There  is  a  delight- 
ful novelty  in  Act  V :  the  battle,  in  approved  French  style, 
takes  place  behind  the  scenes,  and  is  recounted  to  the  audi- 
ence by  the  Genius  of  England,  who  arises  suddenly  during 
the  noise  of  drums  and  trumpets  and  sings : 

"  Look !  behold !  the  marching  lines ! 
See,  the  dreadful  battle  joins! 
Hark !  like  two  seas  the  shouting  annies  meet ! 
Echoing  hills  the  shock  repeat,"  ete.^^ 

In  cutting  out  the  comic  parts  of  serious  pieces  and 
dropping  "low"  characters,  Hill  illustrates  the  attitude  of 

56  The  unities  are  preserved  by  confining  the  action  entirely  to 
France — the  conspiracy  as  well  as  the  siege  of  Harfleur  and  the  battle 
of  Agincourt.  Scenes  are  joined  together:  II,  4,  and  III,  5,  in 
Shakespeare  form  part  of  Hill's  II,  1;  and  Shakespeare's  V,  2,  is 
included  in  Hill's  III;  Hill  retains  the  boasting  scene  between  the 
Dauphin  and  his  friends — it  introduces  Act  V  (Shakespeare's  III,  7). 
In  combining  and  transferring  speeches,  in  altering  good  lines,  and 
in  omitting  the  best,  Hill  ranks  well  with  his  predecessors.  The 
speeches  of  the  Chorus  are  distributed  among  the  other  characters; 
Exeter's  account  of  the  deaths  of  Suffolk  and  York  is  retained  in 
part,  with  (it  is  almost  needless  to  say)  the  omission  of  its  most 
beautiful  line — "Tarry,  sweet  soul,  for  mine;  then  fly  abreast." 
Hill's  crowning  achievement  is  to  put  into  Katherine's  mouth  Henry's 
soliloquy  on  ceremony  (IV,  I.  Katherine's  speech  is  in  Act  II). 
Nothing  Hill  did,  however,  is  worse  than  Otway  's  mangling  of 
Eomeo  's  speech — ' '  It  was  the  lark,  and  not  the  nightingale, ' ' — in 
his  Caius  Marius. — To  see  what  Hill 's  princess  is  like,  read  her  speech 
on  being  told  the  interests  of  France  demand  her  marriage  with 
Henry : 

' '  Sooner  than  stoop  to  this,  were  mine  the  sceptre, 
I  would  turn  Amazon — my  softness  hid 
In  glittering  steel,  and  my  plumed  helmet  nodding 
With  terrible  adornment,  I  would  meet 
This  Henry  with  a  flame  more  fierce  than  love. ' ' 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  107 

all  the  uninspired  Shakespearean  adapters  of  the  age.^'' 
They  all  thought  they  were  acting  in  the  interests  of  art; 
they  all  desired  to  reveal  Shakespeare's  greatness.^^  And 
to  introduce  a  love  story,  if  there  were  none,  or  to  add 
another,  if  there  were  not  enough,  was  a  common  practice 
with  them.  Tate  patched  up  a  love  affair  between  Edgar 
and  Cordelia  in  Lear,  and  as  late  as  1771,  Cumberland 
supplied  Timon  with  a  daughter,  courted  by  Alcibiades. 
Hill's  Harriet,  therefore,  is  one  of  a  goodly  company.  But 
the  public  did  not  take  kindly  to  this  particular  alteration. 
Booth  tried  to  explain  their  indifference  by  their  disposi- 
tion to  look  upon  Henry  V,  not  as  a  new  play,  but  merely 
as  a  play  altered  from  Shakespeare — not  an  unreasonable 
point  of  view,  surely.  "The  many  beauties  you  have  im- 
proved from  him,"  Booth  remarks,^^  "and  some  noted 
speeches  you  have  made  use  of  with  no  very  material  altera- 
tion .  .  .  have  possessed  the  gross  imaginations  of  the  audi- 
ence that  most  of  the  fine  passages  of  your  own  are  his 
too.  .  .  .  This  I  have  found  from  some  whose  education, 
understanding,  and  acquaintance  .  .  .  might  have  taught 
them  better;  and  yet  their  knowing  his  manner  of  writing 
so  well,  perhaps,  might  the  sooner  lead  them  into  the  mis- 
take."     Booth  is  absolutely  of  the  opinion,  however,  "that 

5"  Genest  says  that  Hill  had  taken  a  hint  from  Orrery 's  Henry  V. 
The  only  possible  hint  is  Orrery 's  use  of  the  name  Tudor  to  designate 
the  lover  whom  Katherine  had  seen  a  year  before;  but  in  Orrery's 
play,  he  is  a  real  person,  and  a  rival  of  Henry's — not  Henry  himself 
in  disguise.  Orrery's  play,  which  is  in  rhyme,  has  scarcely  any 
resemblance  to  Shakespeare's.  See  Dramatic  Worlds  of  Boger  Boyle, 
Earl  of  Orrery,  etc.,  I.    London,  1739. 

58 ' '  Not  a  single  one  of  these  adapters,  even  the  very  wretchedest 
of  them,  doubted  for  a  moment  that  his  work  was  a  decided  im- 
provement upon  the  original."  Lounsbury,  Shahespeare  as  a  Dra- 
matic Artist,  293. 

59  Letter  from  Booth  to  Hill,  dated  ' '  Sunday  morning, ' '  in  the 
Col.  of  1751. 


108  AARON   HILL 

after  it  has  slept  some  time,  it  will  appear  again  upon  the 
stage,  with  a  much  better  grace,  and  continue  in  the  stock 
in  the  first  form  of  tragedy  forever."^" 

The  production  occasioned  a  little  bickering  in  two  of 
the  periodicals — Pasquin  and  the  True  Briton.  The  Pasquin 
correspondent^^  is  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  Shakespeare's 
soul  has  ' '  transmigrated ' '  to  Hill ;  and  a  writer  in  the  True 
Briton  of  December  13  is  amazed  at  Harriet's  failure  to 
affect  the  ladies :  "  To  what  must  we  impute  it  that  the  sex 
most  concerned  in  this  incident  of  the  play,  seemed  so  little 
to  be  touched  by  it ! "  Few  in  that  day  would  have  thought 
of  imputing  it  to  the  innate  good-sense  of  the  sex.  All  this 
praise  was  treated  with  scorn  by  "Menander,"  in  the 
Pasquin  of  December  20.  The  True  Briton  had  admired  a 
passage  in  Hill's  play  about  the  unbusied  shepherd's  having 
a  pleasanter  time  than  the  king:  the  expression,  says 
"Menander,"  is  vastly  labored  and  distorted  to  disguise, 
if  possible,  the  obviousness  of  the  sentiment ;  of  course  a 
hawthorne  shade  is  sweeter  than  a  canopy,  even  if  the  latter 
were  not  shaken  by  treason — it  only  teaches  us  "that  it  is 
better  to  be  safe  in  a  cellar  than  blown  up  in  a  drawing- 
room."  He  contrasts  the  old  Harry's  way  of  making  love 
with  the  new  one's,  much  to  the  latter 's  disadvantage.  Hill 
was  much  hurt  at  this  attempt  to  "justify  the  grossest 
mixture  of  insult  and  rusticity  in  a  speech  of  Shakespeare's 
Harry  to  the  Princess  of  France";  and  he  reflected,  in 
typical  eighteenth  century  fashion,  that  the  men  who  injure 
Shakespeare  most  are  his  admirers,  who  make  no  distinction 
between  his  errors  and  his  excellences.'^-     And  so  we  may 

60  The  play  was  performed  six  times  (Genest). 

61  December  3,  1723. 

62  See  letter  to  the  "reputed  author  of  Pasquin,"  in  JVorls,  II, 
130.  The  editor  of  Hill's  letters  confused  the  periodical  with  Field- 
ing's play  of  Pasquin,  and  represents  the  letter  as  addressed  to 
Fielding. 


HILL   AND   THE    STAGE  109 

leave  Henry  Y  to  await  the  resurrection  prophesied  by 
Booth.«3 

63  ' '  Menander, ' '  whose  sense  commands  one 's  respect,  unfortunately 
mistook  the  strawberry  and  nettle  passage  for  one  of  Hill's  additions, 
and  thus  laid  himself  open  to  the  True  Briton's  retort  of  not  knowing 
the  difference  between  Shakespeare  and  Hill. 


CHAPTER   IV 

HILL   AND    THE    STAGE    (Continued-) 

1723-1749 

Hill's  own  idea  of  the  reason  for  the  failure  of  his  Henry 
V  introduces  us  to  a  new  and  important  dramatic  develop- 
ment. "There  is  a  kind  of  dumb  drama,"  exclaims  Hill, 
"a  new  and  wonderful  discovery!  that  places  the  wit  in  the 
heels!  and  the  experience  of  both  our  theatres  might  have 
taught  any  writer  but  so  dull  a  one  as  I  am,  that  the 
Harlequins  are  gentlemen  of  better  interest  than  the 
Harrys."^  Harlequin  and  Scaramouche  were  familiar  to 
Londoners  even  in  Restoration  days,  for  a  company  of 
Italians  visited  London  in  1673,  and  there  are  various 
allusions  to  Arlequin  before  the  eighteenth  century.  In 
1702,  John  Weaver  arranged  a  pantomime,  often  acted 
by  Rich,  called  The  Cheats  of  Scapin, — "an  entertainment 
of  dancing,  action,  and  motion  only";  and  he  also  arranged 
pantomimes — 3Iars  and  Venus,  Orpheus  and  Eurydice,  and 
Cupid  and  Bacchus — for  Drury-Lane.  In  1718,  a  French 
company  presented  The  Two  Harlequins  at  Lincoln 's-Inn- 
Fields,  and  an  Italian  company,  about  1724,  acted  at  the 
Haymarket.^  Although,  before  1723,  John  Rich  had  pro- 
duced some  little  Harlequinades  "in  the  taste  of  the  Italian 
Night-scenes,""  his  genius  did  not  really  blaze  forth  until 
that  year.  A  little  before  the  performance  of  Henry  V,  a 
pantomime  called  Dr.  Faustus  had  been  brought  out  at 

1  Preface  to  Henry  V. 

2  Wyndham,  Annals  of  Covent  Garden  Theatre,  1,  12;  Winifred 
Smith,  The  Commedia  Dell' Arte,  222  f. 

3  Genest,  III,  155. 

110 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  111 

Drury-Lane  by  Thurmond  the  dancing-master;  Rich  fol- 
lowed on  December  20  with  his  Necromancer,  or  History  of 
Dr.  Faust  us;  and  on  January  21,  1725,  with  Harlequin 
Sorcerer. 

Fielding,  in  a  well-known  passage,  describes  these  enter- 
tainments as  consisting  of  two  parts,  "which  the  inventor 
distinguished  by  the  names  of  the  serious  and  the  comic. 
The  serious  exliibited  a  certain  number  of  heathen  gods 
and  heroes,  w^ho  were  certainly  the  w^orst  and  dullest  com- 
pany into  which  an  audience  was  ever  introduced ;  and  .  .  . 
were  actually  intended  so  to  be,  in  order  to  contrast  the 
comic  part  of  the  entertainment,  and  to  display  the  tricks 
of  Harlequin  to  the  better  advantage.  This  was,  perhaps, 
no  very  civil  use  of  such  personages,  but  the  contrivance 
was,  nevertheless,  ingenious  enough,  and  had  its  effect. 
And  this  will  now  plainly  appear,  if,  instead  of  serious  and 
comic,  we  supply  the  words  duller  and  dullest,  for  the 
comic  was  certainly  duller  than  anything  before  shown  on 
the  stage,  and  could  be  set  off  only  by  that  superlative 
degree  of  dulness  which  composed  the  serious.  So  intoler- 
ably serious,  indeed,  were  these  gods  and  heroes,  that 
Harlequin  .  .  .  was  always  welcome  on  the  stage,  as  he 
relieved  the  audience  from  worse  company."* 

A  more  friendly  account  of  Rich's  achievement  is  given 
by  Thomas  Davies:  "By  the  help  of  gay  scenes,  fine  habits, 
grand  dances,  appropriated  music,  and  other  decorations, 
he  exhibited  a  story  from  Ovid's  MetamorpJioses,  or  some 
other  fabulous  writer.  Between  the  pauses  or  acts  of  this 
serious  representation,  he  interwove  a  comic  fable,  consist- 
ing chiefly  of  the  courtship  of  Harlequin  and  Columbine, 
with  a  variety  of  surprising  adventures  and  tricks,  which 
were  produced  by  the  magic  wand  of  Harlequin;  such  as 
the  sudden  transformation  of  palaces  and  temples  to  huts 

■i  Tom  Jones,  bk.  V,  eh.  1. 


112  AARON    HILL 

and  cottages;  of  men  and  women  into  wheel-barrows  and 
joint-stools;  of  trees  ...  to  houses;  eolonades  to  beds  of 
tulips;  and  mechanics'  shops  into  serpents  and  ostriches." 
And  of  Rich 's  acting  he  says  that  ' '  his  gesticulation  was  so 
perfectly  expressive  of  his  meaning,  that  every  motion  of 
his  hand  or  head,  or  of  any  part  of  his  body,  was  a  kind 
of  dumb  eloquence  that  was  readily  understood  by  the 
audience";  his  leave-taking  of  Columbine  was  at  once 
graceful  and  affecting.^ 

These  two  quotations  represent  pretty  well  the  divergent 
views  of  critics  and  audience  about  the  new  entertainment. 
The  critics  denounced,  and  the  public  enjoyed.  In  Ho- 
garth's plate  of  Masquerades  and  Operas  (1723),  Satan 
appears  dragging  a  multitude  to  the  masquerade  and  opera, 
and  on  the  opposite  side  crowds  rush  to  witness  the  panto- 
mimes; over  the  gateway  is  the  sign  of  Dr.  Paustus,  with 
dragon  and  windmill ;  a  woman  is  carting  off  Shakespeare, 
Jonson,  and  the  rest  in  a  wheelbarrow.  A  correspondent  in 
Pasquin  writes  with  much  concern:  "Dear  Pasquin,  if 
affairs  go  on  -at  this  rate,  the  poet  and  the  player  will  be- 
come useless  things,  while  the  joiner,  the  dragon-maker,  and 
posture  master  run  away  with  all  the  credit  and  profit."" 
On  the  other  hand,  a  writer  in  the  Weekly  Journal,  or 
Saturday's  Post  defends  pantomime  on  the  ground  that 
there  were  rope-walking  elephants  in  Rome.''  There  is, 
of  course,  no  question  what  position  Hill  would  take.  In 
the  Plain  Dealer  for  July  6,  1724,^  he  describes  the  accom- 
plishments of  an  African  elephant  and  a  Russian  bear,  and 
suggests  that  they  apply  at  the  theatre, — "entering  lately 
with  much  vivacity  upon  new  plans  of  action  which  fall 
immediately  within  the  genius  of  our  four-footed  virtu- 

5  Life  of  Garrick,  I,  92,  331. 

0  January  21,  1724.     See  also  February  4,  1724. 

7  January  23  and  30,  1724-1725. 

8  No.  31. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  113 

osos. ' '  His  scorn  increases  month  by  month ;  by  December, 
he  is  commenting  on  the  genius  of  the  actors'  limbs,  the 
readiness  of  their  "elastic  capacity,"  the  "voice  of  their 
muscles";  and  is  hoping  presently  to  see  Mr,  Lun  (Rich) 
' '  crawling  up  the  edge  of  one  of  his  scenes,  and  sticking  to 
the  roof  like  a  spider  over  the  heads  of  a  shouting  pit! 
where  he  will  spin  himself  into  their  good  graces,  till  their 
necks  are  half  broke  with  the  sublimity  of  their  enter- 
tainment."^ 

The  scorn  of  the  judicious  had  no  effect  on  Rich;  and 
even  the  other  house,  in  self-defense,  had  to  try  to  imitate 
him  as  best  it  could,  thus  winning  for  its  managers  a  place 
in  the  Dunciad}^  The  success  of  Harlequin  and  of  the 
Beggar's  Opera  raised  the  prosperity  of  Lincoln 's-Inn- 
Fields  to  a  height  that  embarrassed  the  older  house.  The 
famous  actors  of  Drury-Lane  were  dropping  out  one  by 
one :  Mrs.  Oldfield  died  in  1731 ;  Wilks,  in  1732 ;  Booth,  in 
1733,  after  a  long  illness  that  had  kept  him  off  the  stage  for 
several  years;  Gibber  was  growing  old.  Meanwhile,  the 
Haymarket  and  Goodman's  Fields  (opened  in  1729)  were 
flourishing ;  the  most  successful  new  tragedy,  George  Barn- 
well, was  brought  out  at  the  latter  house.  The  prosperity 
of  the  minor  theatres,  the  increasing  tendency  to  satirize 
political  conditions,  the  popularity  of  pantomime,  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  old  school  of  actors, — all  made  the  situa- 
tion about  1730  interesting  and  full  of  possibilities.  It  was 
clearly  a  period  of  change  and  readjustment,  with  many 
opportunities  for  the  critic  and  the  author. 

Such  Hill  found  it.     From  1730  to  1738,  when  he  re- 

9  No.  77.     See  also  Nos.  51,  59,  and  82. 

10  See  Dimciad,  1st  ed.,  Ill,  215: 

"When  lo!  to  dark  encounter  in  mid-air, 
New  wizards  rise,  liere  Booth  and  Gibber  there; 
Booth  in  his  cloudy  tabernacle  shrined, 
On  grinning  dragons  Cibber  mounts  the  wind." 
9 


114  AAEON    HILL 

tired  to  Plaistow,  he  was  actively  concerned  in  one  way  or 
another  with  the  stage :  he  wrote  plays  that  were  successful, 
a  play  that  failed,  and  a  play  that  no  manager  would  pro- 
duce; he  elaborated  a  theory  on  the  art  of  acting  and  prac- 
tised it  on  several  pupils,  one  of  whom  did  him  much  credit ; 
he  wrote  innumerable  letters  of  advice  to  young  actors  and 
actresses ;  he  had  ideas  about  national  theatres  and  schools 
of  dramatic  art,  and  several  schemes  for  theatrical  manage- 
ment that  almost  came  to  something;  he  took  an  active 
part  in  the  discussion  over  the  regulation  of  the  stage ;  and 
he  published  a  periodical,  the  Prompter,  in  which  all  his 
schemes,  ideas,  and  criticisms  found  expression.  Though  in 
many  ways  he  reflected  current  ideas,  the  keenness  of  his 
comment  in  some  respects  has  not  had  the  justice  done  it 
that  it  deserves. 

It  may  have  been  the  moderate  success  of  his  friends, 
Mallet  and  Thomson,  in  tragedy,  that  fired  his  dramatic 
ambition  again.  Thomson's  Sophonisha  was  produced  in 
1730  and  Mallet's  Eurydice  in  1731.^1  For  his  own 
attempt.  Hill  rewrote  and  (in  his  opinion)  vastly  improved 
the  old  play  of  Elf  rid;  under  the  name  of  Athelwold,  it  was 
accepted  in  1731  by  Drury-Lane.  Hill  left  no  stone  un- 
turned to  make  the  representation  a  success.  He  exhausted 
his  entreaties  and  his  flatteries  to  induce  Wilks,  then 
already  near  the  end  of  his  career,  to  take  the  title-role  ;^" 

11  Hill  knew  much  better  than  Mallet  what  Mallet  meant  by  the 
play;  they  discussed  its  moral  in  a  brisk  correspondence  during  the 
month  of  February.  (See  letters  from  Hill  to  Mallet  February  6, 
1731,  February  9,  February  12,  February  18,  and  February  23,  in 
Hill's  Works,  I,  28,  31,  39,  43,  45).  Mallet  was  not  at  that  time,  to 
quote  Dr.  Johnson,  "too  high  to  accept  a  prologue  and  epilogue  from 
Aaron  Hill,  neither  of  which  can  be  much  commended. ' '  Few  of 
the  prologues  and  epilogues  of  the  day  did  deserve  any  commendation. 

12  See  letters  from  Hill  to  Wilks  September  17  and  2.5  and  Novem- 
ber 4,  1731  (Worls,  I,  69,  73,  96) ;  and  from  Wilks  to  Hill,  September 
24  and  October  10  (Col.  1751). 


HILL   AND    THE    STAGE  115 

it  was  a  part  sure  to  give  pleasure  to  i\Ir.  Wilks,  and  receive 
life  from  him;  "the  turn  of  it  is  amorous,  inconstant, 
spirited,  attractive,  and  distressful;  it  consists  of  fire  and 
vivacity,  endeared  and  tempered  by  the  softer  passions." 
But  Wilks  firmly  declined  to  throw  lustre  on  the  character 
of  the  hero;  he  had  all  he  could  do  to  "rub  through"  his 
parts  in  comedy;  and  j\Ir,  Mills  would,  he  was  sure,  do  the 
part  well  with  Mr.  Hill's  assistance — it  would  be  a  wretched 
actor  who  could  not  do  well  with  that! 

Then  Hill  tried  to  arouse  his  interest  in  the  dressing  of 
the  parts,  by  sending  drawings  for  "a  novelty  in  the  old 
Saxon  dresses,"  based  on  Verstegan's  Antiquities,  with 
possibly  some  Hillian  variations.^^  This  antiquarian  con- 
cern for  the  correctness  of  the  costumes  was  in  itself  a 
novelty.  "To  say  nothing,"  he  writes,  "as  to  impropriety 
in  the  custom  of  dressing  characters  so  far  back  in  time 
after  the  common  fashions  of  our  days,  it  weakens  proba- 
bility. '  '^*  There  had  been  in  the  seventeenth  century  some 
feeble  efforts  at  historical  accuracy  on  the  French  stage, 
but  they  were  abandoned,  either  for  contemporary  dress, 
or  for  the  hero-costume  of  flying  feathers,  Louis  XIV  wigs, 
gilt  armor,  festooned  skirts,  gilt-fringed  gloves,  and  so 
on.^^  Garrick,  who  "never  willingly  put  on  the  Roman 
habit,  "^''  adopted  a  simple  modern  costume  in  tragedy. 
Hill 's  hints  about  these  Saxon  dresses  are  tantalizing :  there 
were  furs,  though  Hill  assures  Wilks  that  they  need  not  be 
real;  "as  to  the  coronets,  it  was  a  custom  of  those  times 

13  Hill  to  Wilks,  October  28,  1731.     Worls,  I,  89. 

i*Hill  had  more  to  say  about  theatrical  costume  in  the  Prompter, 
No.  22:  "An  old  Roman  could  never  with  any  propriety  be  made  to 
look  like  a  modern  Frenchman;  nor  a  Dutch  Burgomaster's  wife 
like  the  Queen  of  Great  Britain. ' ' 

15  See  Karl  Mantzius,  Hist,  of  Theatrical  Art,  Y,  227-228,  370,  391. 
Pepys,  in  his  diary  for  March  8,  1664,  mentions  "garments  like  the 
Eomans"  in  a  performance  of  Heraclius. 

16  Davles,  Life  of  Garrick,  I,  96. 


116  AARON    HILL 

for  persons  of  high  rank  to  wear  them  upon  common  as 
well  as  extraordinary  occasions;  but  they  must  be  distin- 
guished more  than  they  are  in  the  papers,  to  point  out  the 
different  degrees;  and  worn  in  a  more  becoming  position, 
higher  off  from  the  forehead,  and  a  little  leaning  to  one 
side."^'^  To  Hill's  distress,  Wilks  kept  silence  on  this 
subject. 

Mallet  hastened  to  offer  ' '  an  engagement  of  his  friends  in 
favor  of  the  tragedy" ;  a  reading  was  held  at  Lord  Tyrcon- 
nel's;^^  and  Pope  (who  had  reasons  just  then  for  being 
very  complaisant)  not  only  corrected  the  play,  but  promised 
to  do  his  part  in  preparing  the  ''expectations  of  people 
of  the  first  rank" — a  necessary  precaution,  "if  one  would 
wish  a  play  that  kind  of  fame  which  noise  can  give  it."^^ 
And  just  before  the  date  of  presentation,  Pope  had  in  a 
manner  rounded  up  a  very  respectable  audience :  Lord 
Bathurst,  Lord  Burlington — "who  comes  on  purpose  to 
town," — another  noble  Lord  (Peterborough,  apparently), 
Gay  and  Sir  William  Wyndham.-*' 

The  play  was  acted  on  December  10,  and  survived  only 
three  nights.  "I  need  not  inform  you,"  Hill  wrote  to 
Pope,  who,  in  a  kind  attempt  to  gloss  over  the  failure,  had 
reported  the  audience  attentive  and  a  few  of  the  ladies  even 
tearful,-^  "how  it  dragged  itself  along  for  two  lean  nights 
after  the  first;  as  lame  and  wounded  as  the  snake  in  your 
poem,  but  not  half  so  delightfully.  It  would  be  affecta- 
tion, not  modesty,  to  deny  that  I  am  nettled  at  the  mon- 
strous reception  which  the  Town  has  given  this  tragedy." 

17  October  28,  1731.     Worlds,  1,  91. 

18  Hill  to  Tyrconnel,  November  22.     Worls,  I,  100. 

19  HiU  to  Pope,  September  30,  1731.     Worlcs,  1,  82. 

20  Pope  to  Hill.  Col.  of  1751.  The  date  should  be  December  9, 
not  November  12. 

21  Pope  to  Hill.  Col.  of  1751.  There  and  in  Elwin  and  Courthope's 
Fope,  the  letter  is  wrongly  dated  November  14  instead  of  December  14. 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  117 

He  has  a  faint  hope  that  "some  persons  of  rank  and  dis- 
tinction to  bespeak  plays  and  compel  audiences  may  be 
kind  enough  to  Athelwold  to  introduce  him  now  and  then 
into  civiler  company',  for  the  sake  of  the  company.  It  were 
a  downright  shame  if  these  good  people,  who  gave  the 
tragedy  all  its  merit  of  fine  dressing  and  scening,  should  be 
suffered  to  lose  their  money,  while  the  good-for-nothing 
author,  who  was  guilty  of  the  dull  part  of  the  entertain- 
ment, has  lost  nothing  but  his  labor.  But  enough  of  this 
subject." 

No  one  who  reads  the  play  can  fail  to  sympathize  with 
the  audience.  The  simple  plot  of  the  earlier  play  is  com- 
plicated by  the  introduction  of  new  episodes,  which  crowd 
the  action  so  that  the  supposed  unity  of  time  becomes  an 
absurdity.  Athelwold  is  made  the  betrayer,  before  his 
marriage,  of  a  certain  Ethelinda,  a  lady  of  rank;  his  reason, 
in  fact,  still  prefers  her  to  Elfrid,  but  he  has  married  the 
latter  chiefly,  I  suppose,  because  the  king  wanted  her,  and' 
the  deed  offered  him  an  unexampled  opportunity  to  put 
himself  in  a  position  from  which  there  could  be  no  honor- 
able escape.  One  felt  some  sympathy  for  him  when  his 
deception  of  the  king  was  the  result  of  passionate  love  for 
Elfrid;  but  the  combination  of  lying  lover  and  lying  sub- 
ject is  too  much  for  the  most  charitably  disposed.  Hill 
"raised"  the  king's  character — Genest  calls  it  putting  him 
on  stilts;  no  one  ever  talked  like  Edgar.'-  Elfrid,  after 
discovering  how  Athelwold  acts  and  hearing  how  the  king 

22  He  had  once  seen  Elfrid^  in  the  crowd  at  his  coronation^  and  he 
recalls  it  thus: 

' '  My  raised  eye 
Met  her  flashed  charms,  amidst  a  gazing  crowd, 
Who,  from  the  scaffolded  cathedral's  sides, 
Poured  their  bold  looks  upon  me;  greatness  and  languor 
Flowed  in  a  softened  radiance  from  her  mien, 
Sweetness  sat  smiling  on  her  humid  eyeballs; 
And  light-winged  Fancy  danced  and  flamed  about  her." 


118  AARON   HILL 

speaks,  wisely  gets  herself  to  a  nunnery ;  Ethelinda  plunges 
a  dagger  into  her  bosom  (behind  the  scenes),  and  Athel- 
wold  (also  behind  the  scenes)  takes  her  body  in  his  arms 
and  leaps  with  it  into  the  sea.  It  is  but  just  to  say  that 
there  are  good  lines  in  the  play,  and  even  one  or  two  good 
speeches;  and  Pope,  who  was  reported  as  having  been 
"warmed"  by  it,  may  not  have  been  warmed,  as  one  at  first 
suspects,  merely  by  honest  mirth.^^ 

For  the  moment.  Hill  was  determined  to  let  the  stage  go 
its  own  way  to  destruction ;  but  events  soon  persuaded  him 
to  abandon  that  resolution.  Booth,  a  few  months  before 
his  death,  disposed  of  one-half  his  share  in  the  patent  (re- 
newed in  1732  in  the  names  of  Gibber,  Wilks,  and  Booth) 
and  of  all  his  power  to  John  Higlunore,  a  wealthy  young 
man  ambitious  of  histrionic  distinction,  who  had  ''exposed 
himself,"  in  Genest's  phrase,  by  acting  Lothario;  after 
Booth's  death,  his  widow  sold  the  remaining  half -share  to 
'Giffard  of  Goodman's  Fields;  and  Mrs.  Wilks  delegated 
her  power  to  the  inexperienced  Mr.  Ellis.  Colley  Gibber 
grew  disgusted  at  the  importance  of  Highmore  and  the 
ignorance  of  Ellis,  and  appointed  as  his  deputy  his  son 
Theophilus,  "who  wanted  nothing  but  power  to  be  as 
troublesome  as  any  young  man  living."     To  rid  himself  of 

23  Pope  said  that  "no  play  had  ever  more  warmed  him"  (Booth  to 
Hill,  November  8,  1731,  Col.  of  1751).  Ethelinda 's  speech  (Act  IV) 
to  Elf  rid,  after  the  latter  has  confirmed  the  tale  of  Athelwold's 
treachery,  is  good: 

' '  Farewell  for  ever. 

Kneel  and  pray  Heaven,  to  whose  indulgent  hand 

You  owe  attraction,  to  increase  and  giiard  it ; 

Else  will  your  destined  ruin  soon  instruct  you 

That  he,  who,  tempted  by  your  charms,  betrayed 

His  heart's  vowed  mistress,  and  deceived  his  king, 

Will  for  some  new  temptation  give  up  you. 

And  leave  you  subject  to  another's  pity. 

As  I  am  now  to  yours." 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  119 

Theophilus,  Highmore,  at  the  end  of  the  season  of  1732-33, 
purchased  the  elder  Gibber's  share  in  the  patent;  but  the 
discontented  young  Gibber  drew  all  the  actors  after  him 
to  the  Haymarket,  and  left  Highmore  to  open  Drury-Lane 
in  September  with  such  raw  recruits  as  he  could  collect 
from  the  country  theatres.  The  town  was  thrown  into 
parties,  and  the  two  patentees  joined  forces  against  the 
seceders.  Persuasion  failed;  an  attempt  to  secure  the  in- 
terference of  the  Lord  Ghamberlain  also  failed;  then  the 
Vagrant  Act  was  put  into  operation  against  the  actors,  and 
one  of  them,  Harper,  was  arrested.  The  outcome  of  his 
case  was  watched  with  interest  on  all  sides,  for  it  was 
another  test  of  the  patent  monopoly.  That  monopoly  was 
again  proved,  as  in  Steele's  case,  to  be  ineffective,  for 
Harper  was  discharged  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  free- 
holder in  Surrey  and  a  housekeeper  in  Westminster.-* 
This  was  in  November,  1733.  By  the  following  March, 
Highmore,  discouraged  by  his  losses,  gave  up  the  struggle, 
and  sold  out  to  Fleetwood,  a  man  of  fortune  and  fashion, 
who  persuaded  the  seceders  to  return  to  Drury-Lane.-^ 

During  this  period  of  storm  and  stress.  Hill's  mind  and 
his  pen  were  busy.  He  began  in  January,  1733,  by  re- 
vising a  tragedy  for  Victor,  and  writing  a  farce  at  his 
request.-*'  Then  he  grew  interested  in  Highmore 's  manage- 
ment, and  was  deterred  from  buying  the  other  shares  in 
the  patent  merely  by  lack  of  funds.  In  April  he  was  con- 
sidering, apparently  on  Victor's  suggestion,  some  arrange- 

24  Gibber  reflected  pertinently  on  this  ease  ' '  that  if  acting  plays 
without  license  did  not  make  the  performers  vagabonds  unless  they 
wandered  from  their  habitations  so  to  do,  how  particular  was  the  case 
of  us  three  late  managing  actors,  at  the  Theatre-Eoyal,  who  in  twenty 
years  before  had  paid,  upon  an  average,  at  least  twenty  thousand 
pounds  to  be  protected  (as  actors)  from  a  law  that  has  not  since 
appeared  to  be  against  us."     Apology,  ed.  Lowe,  I,  284. 

25  See  Genest.  Ill,  373  f..  for  the  details  of  these  transactions. 

2G  The  farce  was  to  be  called  The  Maggot.    It  was  not  performed. 


120  AARON    HILL 

ment  with  Highmore :  "  I  am  so  much  rather  inclined  to 
unite  my  endeavors  with  Mr.  Highmore 's,  for  raising  and 
establishing  Drury-Lane  to  and  in  a  condition  it  has  not 
yet  been  acquainted  with,  than  to  open  a  new  house  (and 
to  that  end  either  enlarging  the  little  one  in  the  Haymarket, 
or  building  another  in  a  better  place)  that  I  will  not  think 
of  anything  but  a  union  with  Mr.  Highmore,  if  you  can 
find,  upon  giving  yourself  the  trouble  of  a  conversation 
or  two  on  the  subject,  that  it  is  practicable."  Will  Victor 
sound  Mr.  Booth  and  Mr.  Ellis  as  to  their  willingness  to 
farm  out  their  shares  to  him?  If  the  patent  were  all  High- 
more 's,  he  would  give  him  a  thousand  pounds  a  year  for 
half  his  profits,  and  would  "add  to  that  company  some 
actors,  who  have  never  been  seen,  heard  of,  or  thought  of; 
and  yet  at  their  very  first  appearance  shall  be  able  to  put 
an  end  to  the  Town's  complaint  for  the  loss  of  the  great 
men  of  the  stage."  He  would  like  to  know  whether  Victor 
has  had  any  conversation  with  Highmore,  because  some 
gentlemen  are  desirous  of  being  concerned  with  him  in  a 
design  of  his  own,  and  he  must  decide  quickly.-^ 

Immediately  after  the  defection  of  the  actors,  Hill  told 
Highmore  what  he  thought  of  the  capacity  of  actor-man- 
agers: "If  to  have  surfeited  the  town  with  a  choking  suc- 
cession of  absurdities;  if  to  have  dressed  .  .  .  Mr.  Gibber 
and  his  string  of  comedies;  if  to  consider  the  new  pieces 
which  are  offered  them  in  no  other  light  than  whether  their 
authors  will  make  interest  to  support  them ;  if  to  revive  so 
few  old  ones  that  .  .  .  our  audiences  are  able  to  bear  part  , 
with  the  actors ;  and,  finally,  if  not  to  have  found,  made,  or 
left  one  promising  genius  for  the  stage  to  succeed  to  the 
fame  of  such  notable  instructors: — if  these  are  the  marks 
of  a  capacity  for  directing  a  theatre,  then  the  players  have 

27  These  letters  are  found  in  Victor's  Hist,  of  the  Theatres,  II,  174- 
193.  They  are  dated  January  1,  January  5,  March  22,  April  5, 
April  9. 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  121 

a  title  that  can  never  be  questioned."  Surely  the  stage 
should  be  in  the  hands  of  those  competent  to  instruct  actors. 
He  then  offers  advice  for  the  fall  performances,  and  adds 
that  he  has  "a  considerable  variety  of  new  and  humorous 
entertainments  in  his  hands,  prepared  with  the  idea  of 
attempting  a  new  theatre";  but  he  prefers  to  purchase 
some  share  in  the  patent — "about  which  Mr.  Victor  tells 
me  you  have  no  exception  to  my  treating  with  the  ladies. '  '-^ 
Highmore  must  have  been  indifferent.  On  August  31, 
Hill  writes  to  an  unidentified  correspondent-^  of  a  design 
to  establish  "an  academical  theatre  for  improving  the  taste 
of  the  stage,  and  training  up  young  actors  and  actresses  for 
the  supply  of  the  patent  theatres. ' '  The  company  is  formed 
and  could  open  in  November,  with  "a  race  of  plays  and 
entertainments  so  new  in  themselves  and  the  manner  in 
which  they  will  be  acted  that  the  success  will,  I  think,  be 
insured  by  the  novelty."  He  had  been  offered  a  patent 
at  400  pounds  a  year,  and  was  about  to  accept  it  when  it 
occurred  to  him  that  his  correspondent  might  secure  a 
license.  He  intends  to  publish  a  pamphlet  explaining  the 
design,  and  proposing  a  subscription  for  six  nights  to  a 
"fashionable  folly"  and  a  tragedy.^"  But  all  this  must 
have  fallen  through,  for  during  the  autumn,  we  find  Hill 
acting  as  adviser  to  Highmore 's  raw  company,  and  mark- 

28  July  5,  1733.     Works,  I,  129. 

29  ' '  Mr.  B-  -  -r. "     Worlcs,  I,  135. 

30  In  an  anonymous  pamphlet,  A  Proposal  for  the  better  Begulation 
of  the  Stage,  published  in  January,  1732,  there  are  ideas  similar  to 
some  of  these  expressed  by  Hill:  the  stage  has  been  too  long  under 
the  tyranny  of  the  players ;  it  is  not  strange  that  the  acting  is  so  poor 
when  a  promising  young  player  is  dreaded  by  the  management  as  a 
possible  rival;  the  actor  should  be  regularly  educated.  The  author 
suggests  a  new  theatre,  managed  by  a  company  of  stockholders — 
men  of  quality,  taste,  figure,  and  fortune. 


122  AARON    HILL 

ing  the  parts  that  were  sent  to  him  for  that  purpose.^^  It 
was  a  thankless  task.  There  was  a  strong  current  of  preju- 
dice running  against  Drury-Lane,  which  Hill  was  afraid 
w^ould  increase  "to  an  insurmountable  degree  of  odium  very- 
soon,  unless  the  Patentees  can  be  prevailed  upon  to  see 
their  own  interest  in  giving  up  their  unpopular  pretensions 
to  prosecute  the  people  who  are  universally  thought  to  be 
better  actors  than  their  own,  and  protected,  without  doubt, 
by  much  more  powerful  hands  than  the  Patentees  are 
aware  of."^- 

Fleetwood's  purchase  of  the  patent  ended  Hill's  hope 
of  an  active  business  interest  in  Drury-Lane  affairs.  But 
the  power  of  criticism  remained ;  and  within  a  few  months 
he  had  launched  his  theatrical  periodical.  The  Prompter. 
The  first  number  was  published  on  November  12,  1734,  and 
the  paper  continued  to  appear  twice  a  week  until  July  2, 
1736.  Associated  with  Hill  in  the  enterprise  was  William 
Popple,^^  who  had  contributed  to  Savage's  Miscellany  in 
1726,  and  who  had  recently  had  a  play  or  two  produced. 
Hill  did  not  especially  admire  Popple's  work  in  the 
Prompter — he  thought  his  friend's  genius  more  strikingly 
displayed  in  other  directions.^*  Literary  tradition  ascribes 
the  papers  signed  "P"  to  Popple  and  those  signed  "B" 
to  Hill;  after  the  132d  number,  there  is  no  signature.^' 

31  See  in  Hill 's  Worlds,  1,  the  following  letters  written  in  1733 : 
October  8  (138),  October  9  (146),  October  15  (149),  October  19 
(152),  October  24  (155),  October  24  (15&),  October  31  (162),  Octo- 
ber 31  (165),  November  3  (168),  November  16  (183).  Mr.  Bridge- 
water  was  told  that  in  Tamerlane  he  ought  to  ' '  speak  like  an  angel 
and  move  like  a  god. ' '  That  was  not  very  practical  advice ;  but  Hill 's 
description  of  Mrs.  Porter's  interpretation  of  the  part  of  Imoinda  in 
Oroonolco  is  both  very  interesting  and  full  of  practical  hints. 

32  Letter  of  November  6  to  some  author.     Works,  I,  171. 

33  See  a7ite,  ch.  II. 

34  Forster  MS.,  July  10,  1746. 

35  Thomas  Dale  wrote  to  Dr.  Birch  (Birch  MSS.  4304)  that  he 
thought  James  Ealph  had  a  hand  in  the  Prompter. 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  123 

**B, "  as  the  author  explains  in  the  second  number,  stands 
for  Broomstick,  not  Blockhead:  "I  will  sweep  away  no 
folly,  abuse,  or  presumption  till  I  have  prompted  them  over 
and  over;  but  if  after  such  fair  and  repeated  caveats,  there 
shall  be  found  any  reprobate  obstinacy  that  despises  my 
word  in  the  ear,  or  calls  in  question  my  authority,  I  shall 
.  .  .  show  no  regard  to  distinction  of  persons,  but  sweep  the 
front  and  side  boxes  with  as  little  ceremony  and  respect  as 
is  shown  before  the  curtain  by  broomsticks  of  inferior 
degree  to  obtruding  apples  and  orange  peels." 

He  chose  for  his  motto,  "All  the  world's  a  stage,  and  all 
the  men  and  women  merely  players";  when  we  daily  see 
so  many  act  amiss,  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  a  good 
prompter  is  wanting?  The  stage  prompter  never  appears 
on  the  stage,  but  "has  some  influence  over  everything  that 
is  transacted  upon  it.  .  .  .  Nor  can  I  think  it  any  dishonor, 
since  the  stage  has  so  long  been  transcribing  the  world,  that 
the  world  should  now  make  reprisals,  and  look  as  freely 
into  the  theatres.  Let  their  managers,  therefore,  be  upon 
their  guard;  and  their  dependents,  tragic  or  comic,  take 
good  heed  to  their  parts ;  since  there  is  from  this  day  for- 
ward arisen  a  prompter,  without  doors,  who  hath  a  cat-call 
as  well  as  a  whistle ;  and  whenever  the  players  grow  flat, 
will  himself  make  bold  to  be  musical.  "^^ 

The  specifically  theatrical  purpose  with  which  the  paper 
was  thus  started  remains  prominent  throughout.  But  other 
subjects  were  handled:  there  were  philosophical  papers, 
most  of  them  signed  "P," — typical  eighteenth  century  dis- 
cussions about  the  nature  of  evil,  the  origin  of  moral  virtue, 
the  evidences  of  order  and  harmony  in  the  universe,  free- 
will, chance,  and  the  like;^^  papers  touching  upon  social 
and    economic    problems,    such    as    the   evils    of    debtors' 

36  No.    1. 

37  Nos.  69,  70,  73,  74,  77,  78,  86,  89,  90,  151,  153,  156.  See  ch.  VT 
for  a  controversy  with  the  Grub  Street  Journal,  ostensibly  over  deism. 


124  AARON    HILL 

prisons,  slavery,  and  the  development  of  Georgia;^*  and 
papers  of  literary  criticism, — the  beauties  of  the  epic  (illus- 
trated by  extracts  from  Hill's  unpublished  epic  of  Gideon), 
and  the  relative  merits  of  rhyme  and  blank  verse  (also 
illustrated  by  Hill's  own  efforts).^®  A  very  small  group 
deals  with  politics,  chiefly  the  evils  of  party  spirit  ;*°  and 
another  group  preaches  short  sermons  on  social  morality, 
ranging  from  the  advantages  of  cleanliness  or  of  the  due 
submission  of  wives  to  husbands,  to  the  wickedness  of  hunt- 
ing or  duelling;  they  are  very  "elegant"  and  very  plati- 
tudinous, and  several  of  them  would  furnish  admirable 
texts  for  the  lectures  of  the  modern  eugenist  or  suifragist.^^ 
But  the  stage  papers  are  both  most  interesting  in  them- 
selves and  most  important  historically.  Unfortunately,  the 
Prompter  is  rare,  unattractive  with  its  double  columns  of 
fine  print,  and  burdened  with  many  dull  papers.  Pick  out 
the  essays  of  dramatic  criticism,  however,  read  them  in 
connection  with  what  was  going  on,  realize  that  they  pre- 
ceded a  crisis, — and  they  will  appear  of  some  value  as 
documents  in  literary  history.  If  carefully  selected,  re- 
arranged, repunctuated,  respelled, — edited  perhaps  in  the 
old  unscrupulous  way  that  made  excisions  without  com- 
as kos.  18',  36,  40,  87,  124,  135,  143,  163,  167,  168.  On  practical 
grounds,  Hill  gave  slavery  a  qualified  approval  as  the  less  of  two 
evils  in  the  case  of  Georgia;  better  limit  the  importation  of  slaves 
than  prohibit  it  (No.  87).  "B"  is  the  author  of  two  papers  making 
an  appeal  on  behalf  of  debtors;  he  estimates  the  number  then  con- 
fined at  12,000;  points  out  their  slight  chance  of  escape  from  disease; 
the  uneconomic  waste  of  good  material;  and  the  tremendous  expense 
in  money  alone  of  the  system — 390,000  1.  spent  in  law-charges  and 
jailors'  fees  by  debtors  and  creditors. 

38  Nos.  28,  48,  59,  71,  72,  76,  96,  148,  149,  154,  164,  172,  173. 

40  Nos.  4,  12,  27,  83. 

41  Nos.  15,  16,  17,  19,  21,  25,  26,  31,  32,  43,  49,  52,  58,  61,  63,  65, 
75,  82,  85,  97,  121,  157,  160,  161.  Most  of  these  are  by  "P,"  and 
justify  Hill's  disparaging  opinion  of  Popple's  gifts  as  an  essayist. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  125 

punction, — they  would  form  a  pleasant  little  volume  illus- 
trating the  stage  of  their  day.  And  the  criticism  they 
embody  has  received  the  praise  of  being  the  best  con- 
temporary criticism  of  an  interesting  situation.*^  This  dis- 
cussion will  treat  them  as  a  group,  and  attempt  a  classifica- 
tion that  may  bring  out  their  significance.  They  deal 
with  the  true  function  of  the  stage  and  its  proper  sphere 
of  influence,  and  with  its  actual  influence  for  evil ;  and  they 
try  to  place  the  responsibility  for  that  evil  influence,  and  to 
suggest  remedies.  Similar  opinions  are  scattered  through 
the  plays,  periodicals,  letters,  and  pamphlets  of  the  day,  but 
the  Prompter's  value  is  that  it  focusses  them  all. 

There  is,  of  course,  no  conception  of  the  drama  purely  as 
an  art.  Its  function  is  to  combine  amusement  with  in- 
struction; and  precept  and  example — the  methods  of  phi- 
losophy and  of  history — are  both  at  the  service  of  the 
dramatic  author.  The  Athenians  understood  its  function : 
they  made  tragedy  a  school  of  wisdom  and  comedy  a  school 
of  reproof.  And  the  stage  should  teach  manners  as  well  as 
morals ;  it  is  the  mirror  held  up  to  the  world  that  the  world 
may  see  and  correct  its  deformities.  This  was  the  ideal. 
How  far  did  the  contemporary  stage  realize  it?  It  was  a 
school  of  vice,  not  virtue.  Our  tragedy,  says  the  Prompter, 
corrupts  the  mind  and  breathes  into  the  soul  rash  revenge 
and  wanton  love;  our  comedy,  though  it  pretends  to  re- 
prove finical  dress  in  youth,  misanthropy,  pedantry  in 
ladies,  and  the  like,  actually  tends  towards  conjugal  infi- 
delity, foolish  indulgence  of  wives,  and  ridicule  of  old  age.^^ 
Fielding  observes  of  the  heroes  of  some  plays  of  the  day 
that  they  are  "commonly  eminent  for  those  very  talents 
which  not  only  bring  men  to  the  gallows,  but  enable  them 
to  make  an  heroic  figure  when  they  are  there."** 

42  Nicholson,  Struggle  for  a  Free  Stage,  67,  note. 

43  See  Nos.  30,  79,  80,  105,  109,  113,  134,  171. 

44  Tom  Jones,  book  VIII,  1. 


126  AAEON    HILL 

So  much  for  the  plays.  What  of  the  actors?  "We  have 
already  seen  that  Hill  held  very  positive  views  about  the 
art  of  acting.  In  the  Prompter  he  does  not  as  a  rule  single 
out  individuals  for  his  criticism;  but  Colley  Gibber  and 
James  Quin  come  in  for  some  hard  knocks.  Gibber,  under 
the  pseudonym  of  "Outis, "  had  been  expressing  in  the 
Grul:)  Street  Journal  a  very  favorable  opinion  of  his  own 
abilities,  and  Hill,  in  a  comment  on  the  letter,  declares  that 
"Mr.  Quin  must  be  confessed  to  be  sometimes  wrong  in  his 
tragic  characters;  Mr.  Gibber  to  be  always  so."  Nature, 
by  voice,  figure,  and  conception,  limited  Gibber  to  be  a 
comedian — ''he  was  born  to  be  laughed  at."  He  praises 
his  "exquisite  propriety  of  affectation,  where  he  squeaks, 
bows,  ogles,  dresses,  laughs,  or  any  other  way  exerts  the 
comedian,  in  Sir  Courtly  and  Lord  Foppington."  But 
when  in  Syphax  or  Richard  III,  Hill  sees,  "in  place  of 
menaces  and  majestic  transports,  the  distorted  heavings  of 
an  unjointed  caterpillar,"  he  must  conclude  him  unfitted 
for  tragedy,*^  As  for  Quin — "Mr.  All-weight" — he  was 
told  that  to  be  always  deliberate  and  solemn  was  as  much 
of  an  error  as  never  to  be  so.*®  Gibber  laughed  at  the 
caterpillar,  but  Quin  was  angry,  and  "meeting  Mr.  Hill  in 
the  Gourt  of  Requests,  a  scuffle  ensued  between  them,  which 
ended  in  the  exchange  of  a  few  blows.  "*^ 

Other  strongly  personal  comments  Hill  wisely  confined  to 
dead  actors,  and  some  of  his  descriptions  of  their  acting 
are  very  graphic.  That  of  Booth  is  often  quoted  ;•**  ' '  Two 
advantages  distinguished  him  in  the  strongest  light  from 
the  rest  of  his  fraternity:  he  had  learning  to  understand 
perfectly  whatever  it  was  his  part  to  speak,  and  judgment 

45  No.  3. 
^^No.  92. 

47  Davies,  Life  of  Garricl;  T,  138. 

48  Published  in  Victor's  Life  of  Booth,  1733,  and  in  Hill's  Works, 
II,  115. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  127 

to  know  how  far  it  agreed  or  disagreed  with  the  character. 
Hence  arose  a  peculiar  grace.  .  .  .  He  could  soften  and  slide 
over  Avith  a  kind  of  elegant  negligence  the  improprieties  in 
a  part  he  acted,  while  ...  he  would  dwell  with  energy  upon 
the  beauties,  as  if  he  exerted  a  latent  spirit,  which  had  been 
kept  back  for  such  an  occasion,  that  he  might  alarm, 
awaken,  and  transport  in  those  places  only  where  the 
dignity  of  his  own  good  sense  could  be  supported  by  that  of 
his  author.  .  .  .  The  passions  in  comedy  were  not  strong 
enough  to  excite  his  fire;  and  what  seemed  want  of  quali- 
fication was  only  absence  of  impression.  One  might  have 
said  of  him  in  the  Scripture  phrase,  'He  is  not  dead,  but 
sleepeth.'  .  .  .  He  had  a  talent  at  discovering  the  passions 
where  they  lay  hid  in  some  celebrated  parts,  having  been 
buried  under  a  prescription  of  rantings  and  monotony,  by 
the  practise  of  other  actors.  When  he  had  discovered,  he 
soon  grew  able  to  express  'em.  And  his  secret  .  .  .  was  an 
association,  or  adaptation  of  his  look  to  his  voice ;  by  which 
artful  imitation  of  nature,  the  variations  in  the  sound  of 
his  words  gave  propriety  to  every  change  in  his  counte- 
nance. So  that  among  players  in  whom  it  is  common  to  hear 
pity  pronounced  with  a  frown  upon  the  forehead,  sorrow 
expressed  by  a  grin  upon  the  eye,  and  anger  thundered  out 
with  a  look  of  unnatural  serenity,  it  was  Mr.  Booth's 
peculiar  felicity  to  be  heard  and  seen  the  same,  whether 
as  the  pleased,  the  grieved,  the  pitying,  the  reproachful,  or 
the  angry.  One  would  almost  be  tempted  to  borrow  the 
aid  of  a  very  bold  figure,  and  .  .  .  affirm  that  the  blind  might 
have  seen  him  in  his  voice,  and  the  deaf  have  heard  him 
in  his  visage." 

]Mr.  Booth  was  Hamlet's  solemn  half  and  ]\Ir.  Wilks  his 
gay  half.  The  latter 's  method  of  delivering  the  speech  of 
Hamlet  to  the  ghost  was  ineffective  -^^  he  hurried  through 

49  No.  100. 


128  AARON    HILL 

the  whole  scene  without  pause;  the  words,  "By  Heaven,  I 
say  away ! "  he  addressed  to  the  ghost,  and  advanced  against 
it  with  drawn  sword,  not  perceiving  the  "shocking  inde- 
corum" of  drawing  one's  sword  against  one's  father's 
ghost.  The  Prompter  would  have  Hamlet  speak  in  low 
amazement  when  he  sees  the  ghost,  "fixing  his  eyes  with  a 
kind  of  riveted  doubt";  after  the  words  "angels  and  min- 
isters of  grace,"  he  should  stop  a  moment,  and  then  com- 
mence a  slow  approach,  accompanied  by  broken  sentences  in 
a  voice  struggling  against  the  oppression  of  a  growing 
terror;  "questionable"  should  receive  marked  emphasis,  for 
he  draws  courage  from  the  reflection  that  the  ghost  is  a 
shape  he  may  question;  he  kneels  at  the  word  "father," 
anxiously  awaits  the  effect  of  each  of  the  names  he  adjures 
him  with,  and  in  the  "0,  answer  me,"  his  voice  should 
express  a  sort  of  "desperate  impatience." 

The  Lear  comments  are  interesting.  Had  a  certain 
player  who  acted  Lear  some  time  since,  says  the  Prompter, 
heeded  Shakespeare's  description  of  anger  in  Henry  V,  the 
house  would  not  have  remained  cold.  This  Lear  was  calm 
and  resigned;  delivered  his  passionate  outburst  at  Regan's 
reception  of  him  with  a  look  of  affliction  and  patient  re- 
straint; and  "upon  every  occasion  that  required  the  sharp 
and  the  elevated,  the  stretched  note  and  the  exclamatory, 
the  king  mistook,  like  a  dog  in  a  dream,  that  does  but  sigh 
when  he  thinks  he  is  barking."  Instead  of  grinding  out 
his  curse  of  Regan  from  between  his  teeth,  he  advanced  to 
the  foot-lights,  knelt,  and  pronounced  it  with  the  calmness 
of  a  prayer,  thus  destroying  the  pity  of  the  audience  for 
him,  and  scandalizing  them  hy  his  serene  malice.^" 

If  Hill  refrained  from  mentioning  names,  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  lump  together  the  whole  company  of  players 
as  "the  very  worst  set  of  actors  that  ever  disgraced  the 

50  No.  95. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  129 

nation."  Their  faults  are  ranting,  affectation,  mouthing, 
bellowing,  and  whining, — ^the  last  the  peculiar  crime  of  the 
ladies,  who  probably  wish  thereby  to  create  an  effect  of 
innocence,  and  succeed  only  in  being  innocent  of  meaning 
and  "inarticulately  diverting,  like  infancy. "°^  They  are 
all  so  indolent  that  they  cease  to  act  as  soon  as  they  cease  to 
speak,  and  amuse  themselves  by  examining  the  audience, 
until  they  hear  their  cue;  "at  which,  like  soldiers  on  the 
word  of  command,  they  start  suddenly  back  to  their 
postures,  tone  over  the  unanimating  sound  of  their  lesson, 
and  then  (like  a  caterpillar  that  has  erected  itself  at  the 
touch  of  a  twig)  shrink  back  to  their  crawi  and  their  quiet; 
and  enjoy  their  full  ease  till  next  rousing."  They  cannot 
even  die  with  judgment  and  decency.  Hill  has  seen  a 
"periwig-pated  fellow"  shake  a  tempest  of  powder  about 
him,  and  fall  "like  a  chimney  in  a  high  wind,  not  only 
frighting  but  blinding  all  who  stood  under  his  ruins. '  '^- 

The  players  address  to  the  audience  whatever  they  should 
keep  to  themselves,  and  retain  for  themselves  what  they 
ought  to  bestow  on  the  audience.  In  a  soliloquy  they 
should  look  anywhere  except  at  the  audience.  If,  when  an 
actor  "comes  forward  to  the  line  of  lamps  on  the  edge  of 
the  stage,  and  after  sending  his  eyes  like  his  gentlemen- 
ushers  into  the  pit  or  the  boxes,  begins  to  tell  the  spectators, 
'I  am  alone!'  "  some  honest  lover  of  truth  should  call  out, 
"That's  a  lie,  for  you  look  in  the  faces  of  twelve  hundred 
people  w'ho  are  able  to  contradict  you," — that  would  be 
more  effective  than  cat-calls.^^  They  are  afraid  of  express- 
ing passion.  The  Prompter  urged  an  actress  who  had  a 
part  of  "distressful  anguish"  to  look  sorrowful:  "0,  dear 

51  No.  99. 

52  No.   62. 

53  No.  104.  The  numbers  dealing  with  acting  are  3,  56,  62,  64,  66, 
67,  92,  95,  99,  100,  103,  104,  113,  117,  118,  129.  Most  of  them  are 
signed  "B." 

10 


130  AARON    HILL 

Sir !  anything  but  making  faces  in  tragedy ! ' '  She  was  in 
fact  too  much  rouged,  he  remarks,  to  permit  crying  in  good 
earnest. 

Hill  did  not  confine  himself  to  destructive  criticism.  He 
had  a  carefully  elaborated  theory  of  the  art  of  acting,  of 
which  the  Prompter  gives  samples  both  in  prose  and  verse. 
The  poem  (in  revised  form)  was  afterwards  published  sepa- 
rately in  1746,  and  the  prose  essay^*  was  considered  valu- 
able enough  to  be  reprinted  with  comments  in  1821.  To 
depict  the  passions  one  must  have  some  knowledge  of  them ; 
let  the  actor  first  conceive  the  passion  of  anger,  for  in- 
stance; his  body  will  fall  into  appropriate  attitudes;  and 
when  the  eye  is  inflamed  and  the  muscles  braced,  he  cannot 
help  speaking  angrily.  This  power  of  conception  is,  of 
course,  the  gift  of  the  imaginative  artist — ^a  fact  Hill  does 
not  sufficiently  emphasize.  But  stripped  of  its  verbiage 
and  its  strange  pseudo-scientific  terms.  Hill's  theory  seems 
to  be  in  accord  with  the  modern  theory  of  the  emotions: 
make  the  appropriate  gestures,  assume  the  appropriate 
attitudes,  and  you  will  feel  the  emotion;  the  frown  and 
the  clenched  fist  come  first  and  the  anger  follows.  Why  he 
thought  of  embodying  his  ideas  in  verse  is  more  than  one 
can  imagine.  What  is  a  little  oddly  phrased  but  quite 
intelligible,  in  the  prose,  becomes  simply  absurd  in  verse : 

"  On  the  raised  neck,  oft  moved,  but  ever  straight, 

Turn  your  unbending  bead  with  easy  state." 
"  Spread  be  your  opening  breast;  oft  changed  your  face; 

Step  with  a  slow  severity  of  grace; 

Pausingly  wann,  significantly  rise, 

And  affectation's  empty  swell  despise."  ^^ 

54  WorTcs,  IV,  355  f . 

55  No.  113.  These  lines  inspired  a  poet  to  write  "The  Praise  of 
Tobacco,  in  imitation  of  Mr.  A.  H  -  - 1 's  style,"  Gent.  Mag.,  VI,  5-47, 
September,  1736: 

' '  On  the  raised  lip,  oft  moved,  obliquely  straight, 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  131 

A  more  poetical  expression  than  any  in  the  poem  is  one  in 
prose:  "The  passions  are  what  keys  are  in  a  harpsichord. 
If  they  are  aptly  and  skilfully  touched,  they  will  vibrate 
their  different  notes  to  the  heart,  and  aivaken  in  it  the 
music  of  humanity." 

There  is  no  question  that  the  acting  of  tragedy  did  need 
reform.  When  Charles  IMacklin,  later  a  rival  of  Garrick, 
engaged  with  Eieh  about  1725,  he  spoke,  he  says,  "so 
familiar,  and  so  little  in  the  hoity-toity  tone  of  the  tragedy 
of  that  day,  that  the  manager  told  me  I  had  better  go  to 
grass  for  another  year  or  two."^^  And  Davies'  account  of 
the  effect  of  Garrick 's  acting  throws  light  on  the  old  manner 
that  excited  the  wrath  of  the  Prompter:  "Mr.  Garrick 's 
easy  and  familiar,  yet  forcible  style,  in  speaking  and  acting, 
at  first  threw  the  critics  into  some  hesitation  concerning  the 
novelty  as  well  as  propriety  of  his  manner.  They  had  been 
long  accustomed  to  an  elevation  of  the  voice,  with  a  sudden 
mechanical  depression  of  its  tones,  calculated  to  excite 
a'dmiration  and  to  entrap  applause.  To  the  just  modula- 
tion of  the  words,  and  concurring  expression  of  the  features 
from  the  genuine  workings  of  nature,  they  had  been 
strangers,  at  least  for  some  time. '  '^^  Of  Garrick,  Mr.  ' '  All- 
weight"  Quin  said  that  "if  the  young  fellow  was  right,  he 
and  the  rest  of  the  players  had  been  all  wrong. '  '^^ 

Let  the  glazed  tube  recline,  with  easy  state; 

Pointedly  look 

Puff,  with  a  slow  severity  of  grace, 
Pausingly  wise, ' '  etc. 

Hill's  revised  version  is  much  less  absurd. 

56  Cook,  Memoirs  of  CJmrles  Macl-lin,  99. 

5'!  Life  of  Garrick,  I,  40.  Davies  says  (I,  ch.  13)  that  Hill  was 
"almost  the  only  gentleman  who  labored  assiduously  to  understand 
the  art  of  acting,  and  who  took  incessant  pains  to  eommiuiicate  his 
knowledge  of  it  to  others."  He  speaks  of  his  "just  and  important" 
sentiments  on  acting,  and  of  his  admirable  lessons  to  Eieh's  per- 
formers. 

5S  Davies,  Life  of  Garricl-,  I,  44. 


132  AARON    HILL 

The  audience  needed  prompting  as  much  as  the  actors.^^ 
Their  manners  were  often  more  suited  to  bear-gardens  than 
to  his  Majesty's  theatres.  The  Prompter  was  present  one 
night  at  "his  Majesty's  dramatical  bear-garden,  to  observe 
the  success  of  a  baiting,  called  'Every  Man  in  his  Folly.' 
.  .  .  The  audience,  from  the  footmen's  gallery  to  the  boxes 
beneath  them,  so  prevented  by  their  noise  any  use  of  their 
understanding,  that  it  was  impossible  either  to  acquit  or 
condemn  from  anything  that  we  heard  on  the  theatre." 
When  a  new  play  comes  on,  three-fourths  of  the  audience 
entertain  themselves  for  the  evening  with  a  mob-scene  of 
their  own,  and  the  author,  like  a  Presbyterian  reprobate, 
is  predestined  to  be  damned.  Applause  might  compete 
with  hisses,  but  not  with  hisses,  cat-calls,  shouts,  and 
"horse-laughs."  He  begs  the  boisterous  young  men  with 
cudgels  to  "hold  themselves  contented  at  Hockley-in-the- 
Hole."*'« 

The  Prompter  was  not  alone  in  its  criticism.  James 
Ralph'' ^  tells  how  the  tradesmen  in  the  pit,  in  their  im- 
patience to  get  good  seats,  bring  their  unfinished  meals  tied 
up  in  colored  handkerchiefs,  and  neglect  Mark  Antony  for 
the  leg  of  a  pullet,  or  drown  Monimia's  distress  in  a  glass 
of  sack.  The  boxes  whisper,  nod,  talk  scandal,  and  conduct 
intrigues;  others  get  on  the  stage  and  jostle  the  performers. 
In  the  gallery  the  people  are  well  enough  behaved,  except 
that  they  are  liberal  of  orange-peel  to  the  stage  and  the 
pit;  but  the  footmen's  gallery  disturbs  everything.  The 
Weekly  Register'^-  describes  the  footmen  lolling  over  boxes, 

59  Hill  was  much  pleased  with  Garrick's  acting,  especially  with  his 
lack  of  affectation  (letter  to  Mallet,  April  20,  1744,  Worls,  II,  34). 
Not  that  he  thought  him  in  need  of  no  further  instruction ;  he  offered 
to  mark  all  the  occasions  for  the  "most  alarming  attitudes"  in 
Othello  (letter  to  Garrick,  October  14,  1746,  II,  266). 

CO  See  nos.  20,  136,  139. 

61  The  Taste  of  the  Town,  1732,  p.  130  f. 

02  March  25,  1732.     Quoted  in  the  Gent.  Mag.,  II,  661. 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  133 

where  they  are  keeping  places,  taking  snuff,  humming, 
laughing,  talking  across  the  house,  and  interrupting  the 
play  with  their  bear-garden  quarrels  in  the  upper  gallery. 
Joseph  Andrews,  who  "led  the  opinion  of  all  the  other 
footmen  at  an  opera,"  was  "a  little  too  forward  in  riots  at 
the  playhouse.""^  Tom  Jones  went  with  Mr.  Nightingale 
and  his  company  to  a  "new  play,  which  was  to  be  acted 
that  evening,  and  which  a  very  large  party  had  agreed  to 
damn,  from  some  dislike  they  had  taken  to  the  author ' ' ; 
Sophia  left  terrified  at  the  end  of  the  first  act,  for  "being 
a  new  play,  at  which  two  large  parties  met,  the  one  to 
damn  and  the  other  to  applaud,  a  violent  uproar  and  an 
engagement  between  the  two  parties"  arose.^*  Lord 
Dapper,  in  the  Historical  Register, ^^  thought  himself  a  very 
good  judge  of  plays,  though  he  spent  half  the  time  in  the 
green-room  talking  to  the  actresses,  and  the  other  half  in 
the  boxes  talking  with  the  women  of  quality.  "Thou  art 
a  sweet  judge  of  plays,  indeed, ' '  comments  the  Prompter  in 
the  play. 

But  what  of  the  plays?  What  did  the  turbulent  audi- 
ence like?  Pantomime  and  entertainments,  of  course, — 
"those  disgraces  of  our  stage,  those  wild  triumphs  of 
folly."''®  At  the  end  of  the  6th  number  of  the  Prompter 
appears  an  advertisement  for  Common  Sense,  hunted  or 
^strayed  out  of  the  theatres  of  the  city,  and  supposed  to  be 
lurking  in  some  remote  region.     Not  until  a  year  and  a 

63  Joseph  Andreics,  bk.  T,  ch.  4.  For  an  account  of  one  of  the  worst 
of  these  riots,  see  Gent.  Mag.,  for  March,  1737:  the  footmen,  denied 
entrance  to  the  gallery  because  of  their  rudeness,  broke  open  doors, 
and  wounded  twenty-five  persons. 

04  Tom  Jones,  book  XIII,  ch.  9.  See  also  Jonathan  Wild,  book  I, 
ch.  6. 

65  Act  I,  near  the  end. 

66  See  nos.  6,  12,  35,  105,  109,  117,  125,  127,  128,  149,  166.  For 
comments  on  the  opera,  which  was  a  dangerous  rival  of  tragedy,  see 
nos.  7,  14,  23,  37,  106,  155.     These  are  mostly  by  "P." 


134  AARON    HILL 

half  later  is  the  lost  stray  discovered,  in  Fielding's  theatre, 
armed  with  wit  and  satire  rather  too  forcible  to  be  graceful. 
Of  new  plays,  tragedy  has  little  chance  of  a  hearing,  and 
comedy  and  farce  must  be  combined  with  some  entertain- 
ment before  the  audience  will  suffer  it.  The  poor  author 
sees  a  battery  of  pantomime  levelled  against  his  play;  and 
worse  still,  he  has  to  contribute  to  the  expense  of  the  show 
that  is  destroying  the  taste  for  plays — to  pay  for  a  knife  to 
cut  his  own  throat.  The  stage  is  peopled  with  "monsters, 
tumblers,  ladder-dancers,  Italian  shadows,  dumb-shows, 
buffoonery,  and  nonsense  " ;  it  will  soon  become  a  place  like 
Sadler's  Wells,  Bartholomew  Fair,  Fawkes's  Dexterity  of 
Hand,  or  Cups  and  Balls.  Surely  the  songs  would  lose 
none  of  their  merit,  if  a  little  meaning  were  mixed  with 
their  mirth.  But  Hill  himself  tried  the  experiment;  the 
managers  would  none  of  his  Daraxes;  "in  things  .  .  .  which 
have  a  chain  and  dependence  of  scenes,"  they  said,  "a  poet 
expects  more  than  in  good  manners  he  ought  from  the  at- 
tention and  patience  of  persons  of  quality;  whereas  in 
grotesque  entertainments  .  .  .  there  being  neither  beginning, 
middle,  nor  end,  the  company  are  held  down  to  no  indecent 
necessity,  but  may  look  on  or  off  at  their  pleasure."  I  see 
no  reason  for  the  managers'  refusal,  on  this  score,  of  Hill's 
musical  entertainments — they  hold  one  down  to  no  indecent 
necessity.®'^ 

67  Contemporary  literature  is  full  of  satirical  references  to  Rich  and 
the  pantomimes:  James  Miller's  Harlequin  Horace  (1732)  is  dedicated 
to  J  -  -  n  R  -  -  h,  who  ' '  first  introduced  among  us  the  present  delicate 
and  amazing  taste  in  our  diversions";  The  Dramatic  Poetaster,  a 
Vision   (1732)    describes  many  of  the  shows: 

"There  strong  no-meanings  flash  upon  the  sight, 

Baboons  enchant  and  crocodiles  delight; 

Then  cats  are  eloquent  and  sticks  are  wise; 

Sense  starts  from  raree-shows  and  art  from'  pyes. ' ' 
The  Grub  Street  Journal  (No.  269)  has  a  burlesque  satire  on  enter- 
tainments called  The  Tower  of  Babel;  Fielding's  Tumbledown  Dick, 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  135 

As  to  the  managers,  Hill  is  hopeless  of  their  improve- 
ment. He  excepts  from  his  condemnation  Fielding  and 
Giffard,  who  were  running  the  Haymarket  and  Goodman's 
Fields;  both  these  unlicensed  houses  are  better  managed 
than  the  patent  theatres.  The  patentees,  Rich  and  Fleet- 
wood, whom  he  admires  for  some  admirable  qualities,  he 
dubs  "Lunny"  and  "Lightwit, "  and  declares  that  there 
is  little  to  choose  between  them  in  the  matter  of  general 
incompetence.  It  is  a  case  of  "Arcades  ambo — id  est, 
rascals  both" — 

"  Both  managers,  and  both  alike  inspired 
To  act  what  neither  sense  nor  -nit  required." 

On  the  plan  of  Virgil's  Third  Pastoral,  Hill  gives  a  dia- 
logue between  Lunny,  Lightwit,  and  Common  Sense. 
Lightwit  is  discovered  reading: 

"  Lunny :    What  read  you,  Lightwit  ?    Pantomime,  no  doubt  ? 
Lightwit :    No,  Lunny,  guess  again,  for  there  you're  out." 

It  appears  that  he  is  reading  tragedy — to  get  material  for 
a  burlesque.  Common  Sense  agrees  to  be  referee  in  a 
contest  of  skill,  in  which  the  stakes  are  monkey-skins,  dog- 
skins, and  other  transformation  scene  properties.  Lightwit 
boasts  that  the  audience  claps  his  "squeaking  pig" ;  Lunny, 
that  he  can  lay  his  own  eggs  and  bring  forth  Harlequins. 
Common  Sense  awards  them  both  the  monkey-skin.*'^ 

or  FMeton  in  the  Suds  satirized  Rich;  see  also  Gent.  Mag.,  II,  662, 
III,  179,  and  Ralph's  Taste  of  the  Town,  eh.  III.  Hill's  Snal-e  in 
the  Grass  {Dramatic  Works,  II)  is  a  burlesque  of  pantomimes: 
among  other  details,  Tragedy  is  routed  through  a  trap-door  by  Harle- 
quin; the  Genius  of  the  stage,  a  mixed  Scaramouche  and  Columbine, 
suggests  the  introduction  of  a  dancing  cat  or  two  to  make  tragedy  go 
down  with  the  audience ;  the  Poet  cries  out  ' '  wooden  swords,  wooden 
heads,  wooden  management." 

68  No.  132.  See  also  nos.  35,  50,  51,  53,  56,  100,  117,  123,  127,  128, 
132.  Most  of  these  are  by  Hill.  Davies  describes  Fleetwood  as  a 
gentleman  of  elegant  manners,  but  addicted  to  gambling  and  to  low 


136  AARON    HILL 

The  managers  are  impro\ndent  as  well  as  incompetent: 
as  a  result  of  their  failure  to  form  plans  in  the  summer  for 
the  coming  winter,  the  same  monotonous  succession  of 
tragedies  appears  every  season,  and  for  variety  an  equally 
tiresome  succession  of  the  same  old  comedies — "in  liquid 
burnings  or  in  dry  to  dwell,  is  all  the  sad  variety  of  hell." 
They  have  a  right  to  seek  their  profit;  but  in  seeking  it, 
they  have  no  right  to  use  their  patent  for  purposes  it  was 
not  originally  intended  for.  Hill  suggests  an  amendment 
to  the  statute  of  Elizabeth :  "  A  vagrant,  in  the  plainest  and 
most  rational  sense  of  the  word,  is  a  wanderer.  Not  only 
he  who  strolls  from  his  place  of  habitation,  but  he  also 
who  wanders  out  of  the  sphere  of  his  understanding,  is  a 
stroller.  .  .  .  How  happy,  therefore,  would  it  have  been  for 
the  stage,  had  there  been  added  to  the  act  a  clause,  declar- 
ing all  such  managers  to  be  vagrants  and  liable  to  the 
merited  correction,  who,  without  the  pretensions  of  genius 
or  judgment,  should  presume  to  stroll  into  dramatical 
regions,  and  impudently  assume  the  direction  of  a  province 
wherein  they  have  never  been  naturalized." 

What  constructive  criticism  did  the  Prompter  offer  for 
the  whole  deplorable  situation  ?  Hill  is  sometimes  inclined 
to  find  the  true  root  of  decay  in  the  players'  gross  ignor- 
ance of  their  art,  and  in  the  Town's  indulgence  towards 
both  vicious  plays  and  bad  acting;  and  as  one  remedy,  he 
suggests  a  subscription  for  a  new  theatre.  The  best  ac- 
count of  this  scheme  is  found,  not  in  the  Prompter,  but  in 
a  letter  to  Thomson  (September  5,  1735)  :  no  experiment 
can  be  made  in  the  old  theatres,  under  their  present  man- 
agement; Hill  would  like  to  hazard  a  trial  in  a  new,  with 
the  support  of  some  "untaxed  encouragers, "  and  establish 

company;  he  made  fair  promises  and  broke  them;  bailiffs  were  often 
in  possession  of  his  theatre  towards  the  close  of  his  managership 
(Life  of  Garriclc,  1,  60-61). 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  137 

a  "tragic  academy  for  extending  and  regulating  theatrical 
diversions,  and  for  instructing  and  educating  actors  in  the 
practise  of  the  dramatic  passions,"  If  the  Prince  could 
only  be  engaged  to  put  his  name  at  the  head  of  a  list  of 
those  willing  to  countenance  the  undertaking!  But  the 
Prince  could  not.^" 

Other  efforts  were  being  made  to  reform  the  theatre.  A 
bill  for  restraining  the  number  and  abuses  of  the  play- 
houses was  introduced  by  Sir  John  Barnard  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  March  5,  1735,  only  to  be  withdrawn  after 
much  discussion  on  April  30.  The  immediate  occasion  of 
the  measure  was  the  outcry  raised  by  the  projection  of  a 
new  theatre  in  St.  Martin's  le  Grand,  A  pamphlet""  that 
came  out  in  support  of  the  bill  argued  that  any  increase  in 
the  number  of  theatres — especially  in  a  district  full  of 
apprentices — was  dangerous,  for  apprentices  were  not  im- 
proved by  seeing  how  ancient  heroes  made  love,  or  men  of 
rank  plotted  against  the  virtue  of  the  daughters  and  wives 
of  citizens;  and  in  the  entertainments  they  saw  something 
ten  times  more  immoral.  But  Hill  mentions,  as  a  report  that 
meets  credit  among  thinking  men,  that  the  announcement 
of  this  new  theatre  was  merely  a  strategem  of  one  of  the 
patentees  to  incense  the  magistrates,  and  pave  the  way  for 
the  establishment  of  "his  throne  (and  that  of  his  brother 
monarch)  in  the  empire  of  nonsense,  by  a  Parliamentary 
exclusion  of  all  other  pretenders."  Regulation  of  some 
sort,  he  agrees,  is  necessary,  for  it  is  useless  to  hope  for  a 
change  in  the  taste  or  an  enlargement  of  the  understanding 
or  the  morality  of  the  managers.  But  why  merely  restrain 
the  number  of  corrupt  and  ridiculous  theatres  ?  Why  not 
remodel  and  correct  the  abuses  of  the  old?  Put  the  direc- 
tion in  qualified  hands,  under  regulation,  not  restraint; 

69  Worlcs^  II,  126.  Hill  refers  again  to  the  plan  as  one  that  had  to 
be  given  up,  in  a  letter  to  Thomson  of  May  20,  1736,  Worls,  I,  233. 

70  A  Seasonable  Examination,  etc.,  1735. 


138  VLARON    HILL 

and  do  not  allow  any  patentee  to  suppose  he  deserves  a 
monopoly  to  the  exclusion  of  better  capacities.  One  clause 
in  the  bill  provided  that  no  person  should  act,  represent, 
or  perform,  any  tragedy,  comedy,  opera,  play,  farce,  or 
other  entertainment  for  gain,  hire,  or  reward,  except  the 
holders  of  patents  or  their  deputies;  and  of  this  the 
Prompter  says,  "There  is  no  possibility  the  stage  should 
ever  subsist  in  this  kingdom  if  authors  and  actors  are  sub- 
jected without  control  to  the  caprice  or  ignorance  of  any 
men  who  may  hereafter  look  upon  a  patent  only  as  a 
proper  security  upon  which  to  lay  out  their  money." 

After  the  suspension  of  the  bill,  the  Prompter  felt  at 
liberty  to  speak  freely,  without  disrespect  to  Parliament. 
This  was  Hill's  plan:  to  deprive  the  present  "licentious 
and  licensed  incumbents"  of  a  power  they  were  not  worthy 
of,  and  then  institute  an  inquiry  to  discover  how  it  might 
be  placed  in  abler  hands.  "When  such  blunder-headed 
undertakers  as  these  cry  out  to  the  public  authority  to 
protect  their  incapacities  from  the  correction  of  better 
examples,  I  can  consider  it  in  no  other  light  than  as  one 
of  the  silliest  of  all  those  impudent  farces,  which  have  been 
acted  by,  for,  or  under  them."  Rich  had  tried  to  prove 
his  actors  rogues  several  years  before ;  a  fool  at  the  head  of 
rogues  was  dangerous  and  absurd.  As  for  the  Act  of 
Elizabeth  invoked  for  that  purpose,  it  was  directed  only 
against  the  abuse  of  the  players'  art.  The  stage  is  corrupt; 
will  it  be  reformed  by  giving  to  those  who  have  corrupted 
it  already  the  power  to  corrupt  it  further?  Permit  free 
competition,  cries  Hill.  If  theatres  are  allowed  to  mul- 
tiply, the  wisest  among  the  managers  will  surely  silence  the 
silliest.  "Prohibit  the  acting  any  farce,  harlequinery, 
buffoonery,  or  other  dancing,  singing,  dumb,  or  deserving- 
to-be-dumb  entertainment,  or  anything  beyond  plain 
tragedy  or  comedy,  except  only  in  the  royal  and  licensed 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  139 

theatres."  This  would  leave  their  Delilahs  to  the  present 
Samsons  of  the  stage,  and  bestow  on  their  rivals  only  what 
they  have  parted  with  already.  The  Town  would  be 
pleased — the  gay  and  fashionable  might  meet  at  the  "sign 
of  the  License,"  and  the  wise  and  serious  could  go  else- 
where. Either  the  new  theatres  would  die  for  want  of  en- 
couragement, or  their  success  would  be  due  to  the  merits 
of  the  play  and  the  actors;  and  in  that  case  would  react 
favorably  on  the  patentees,  and  shame  them  out  of  their 
corruption  and  ignorance.'^^ 

The  Prompter  finally  came  to  a  close  in  July,  1736,  less 
than  a  year  before  the  passage  of  the  Licensing  Act.  Hill 
had  noted  with  approval  Fielding's  productions  at  the 
Little  Theatre  in  the  Haymarket,  and  had  pointed  out  that 
while  the  patent  houses  were  competing  in  spectacle  and 
dumb-show,  a  "gentleman,  under  the  disadvantages  of  a 
very  bad  house,  with  scarce  an  actor,  and  at  very  little 
expense,  by  the  single  power  of  satire,  wit,  and  common 
sense,  has  been  able  to  run  a  play  for  24  nights,  which  is 
now  but  beginning  to  rise  in  the  opinion  of  the  town." 
PasqutJi  actually  had  a  run  of  fifty  nights,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Historical  Register,  another  keen  satire  on 
Walpole.  Fielding's  satire  did  not  bring  about  the  Licens- 
ing Act;  a  contributing  cause  was  certainly  the  jealousy 
felt  by  the  patentees  for  the  success  of  the  unlicensed 
T;heatres ;  but  it  was  perhaps  the  last  straw.  "When  a  play 
called  The  Golden  Rump,  containing  a  still  more  violent 
attack  on  the  Government,  came  into  Walpole 's  hands,  the 
ministry  made  up  its  mind."     A  bill  similar  to  Sir  John 

71  See  jQos.  53  and  54.  For  other  papers  on  the  question  of  manage- 
ment, see  nos.  38',  42,  45,  117. 

72  This  play  wag  sent  to  Giffard,  perhaps  to  entrap  him;  but  he  was 
wary  and  sent  it  to  Walpole.  As  a  reward,  he  was  suffered  to  keep 
Goodman's  Fields  open  under  one  pretext  or  another  for  a  time. 
Hill  noted  in  No.  23  of  the  Prompter  that  the  stage  would  soon  have 


140  AARON   HILL 

Barnard's  was  prepared  and  hurried  through  Parliament 
(June  21,  1737)  :  no  performance  not  sanctioned  by  a 
patent  from  the  Crown  or  a  license  from  the  Lord  Chamber- 
lain could  be  presented,  and  the  play  must  be  put  into  the 
Lord  Chamberlain's  hands  a  fortnight  before  representa- 
tion. The  immediate  results  were  the  closing  of  the  Hay- 
market  and  Goodman's  Fields,  and  the  prohibition  of 
Thomson's  Edward  and  Eleanora  and  Brooks's  Gustavus 
Vasa. 

The  monopoly  of  the  legitimate  drama,  thus  established, 
held  its  own  almost  unchallenged  for  fifty  years.  Then  fol- 
lowed years  of  struggle  against  it,  with  many  interesting 
phases,  until  the  bill  of  1737  was  finally  repealed  in  1843. 
Though  tragedy  and  comedy  were  confined  to  the  patent 
theatres,  small  houses,  running  under  licenses  of  one  sort 
or  another,  produced  burlettas,  farces,  and  musical  enter- 
tainments of  all  kinds;  and  continued  to  increase  in  the 
face  of  patent  opposition  and  in  spite  of  many  vicissitudes. 
In  1787,  "it  cle^ly  appeared  that  the  predictions  of  Aaron 
Hill  over  half  a  century  before  had  come  to  pass,  namely, 
that  a  monopoly  of  the  legitimate  drama  must  ultimately 
lead  to  a  lowering  in  tone  of  theatrical  performances."^^ 
From  1787  to  1810,  many  unsuccessful  efforts  were  made 

to  act  political  satire  or  nothing,  and  he  quoted  a  bill,  distributed  by 
Punch  and  Harlequin  at  a  masquerade:  "On  Thursday,  by  the  Nor- 
folk Company  of  artificial  Comedians,  at  Eobin's  great  Theatrical 
Booth  in  Palace-Yard,  will  be  presented  a  comical  and  diverting  Play 
of  Seven  Acts,  called  Court  and  Country;  in  which  will  be  revived  the 
entertaining  Scene  of  Two  Blundering  Brothers,  with  the  Cheats  of 
Eabbi  Eobin,  Prime  Minister  of  King  Solomon;  the  whole  concluding 
with  a  great  Masque,  called,  The  Downfall  of  Sejanus,  or,  The 
Statesman's  Overthrow,  with  Axes,  Gibbets,  and  other  Decorations 
proper  to  the  Play."  Whether  this  particular  bill  was  ever  printed 
or  not,  it  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  lengths  to  which  attacks  on 
Walpole  were  carried. 

"3  Nicholson,  Struggle  for  a  Free  Stage,  etc.,  121. 


HILL   AND    THE   STAGE  141 

to  establish  a  third  patent  theatre,  for  the  production  of 
national  drama.  The  older  houses  had  been  so  enlarged 
that  plays  could  not  be  heard  by  many  of  the  spectators, 
and  as  a  result,  spectacle,  show,  and  melodrama  usurped 
their  stages.  Dramatists,  who  could  seldom  get  their  plays 
produced,  joined  forces,  in  the  closing  period  of  the 
struggle,  with  the  minor  theatres,  and  at  last  won  the 
victory.  "Had  the  wise  counsel  of  the  editor  of  the 
Prompter  been  followed  in  1735,  to  restrict  the  minors  to 
the  legitimate  drama,  the  false  position  which  the  patent 
houses  had  been  forced  to  assume  for  the  last  fifty  years 
of  their  existence  would  have  been  reversed,  and,  though 
the  monopoly  was  sure  to  fall  sooner  or  later,  the  patentees 
might  have  enjoyed  the  last  years  of  their  'exclusive  privi- 
leges' in  some  degree  of  comfort.""'* 

For  the  academical  theatre  of  which  Hill  dreamed  in 
1733,  he  had  ready  his  adaptation  of  Voltaire's  Zwire, 
which  had  been  recently  produced  with  great  success  in 
Paris.  Hill  was  so  "strongly  delighted "^'^  with  the  play 
that  he  lost  no  time  in  making  a  translation ;  one  scene  was 
printed  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  in  May,  1733,  and 
the  public  was  told  how  Rich  had  refused  the  tragedy.'*^ 
Highmore  accepted  it  in  the  fall,  but  delayed  the  produc- 
tion from  month  to  month  until  his  season  was  over.  Hill 
had  intended  to  give  the  profits  to  William  Bond,  an  old 
•friend  of  his,  whose  acquaintance  was  "too  large  for  his 
fortune ";^^  but  two  years'  solicitation  of  the  managers  had 
no  result.  At  length,  in  June,  1735,  Hill's  nephew  hired 
Sir  Richard  Steele's  great  Music-room  in  Villars  Street, 
York  Buildings,  for  an  amateur  performance,  in  which  he 
took  the   role   of   Osman   and   Bond  that   of   Lusignan."* 

74  Struggle  for  a  Free  Stage,  418. 

75  Letter  to  Pope,  November  7,  1733,  Worlcs,  I,  177. 

76  Gent.  Mag.,  April,  1733. 

77  Letter  to  Pope,  November  7,  1733,  Works,  I,  177. 

78  See  Prompter,  no.  60. 


142  AARON   HILL 

"The  reputation  of  the  author,"  says  Davies,  "brought 
some  of  the  best  company  in  London  to  this  diminutive 
theatre."'^  On  the  first  night,  Bond,  old  and  feeble  as 
the  character  he  was  supposed  to  represent,  fainted  in 
earnest  in  the  scene  where  Lusignan  blesses  his  children, 
and  died  a  few  hours  afterwards.  In  spite  of  this  tragedy, 
there  were  two  more  performances,  so  successful  that  the 
Drury-Lane  management  at  last  saw  fit  to  bring  Zara  out 
in  the  following  January.®" 

The  result  was,  comparatively  speaking,  a  triumph,  for 
the  play  had  an  uninterrupted  run  of  fourteen  nights. 
Much  of  the  success  was  due  to  the  acting  of  one  of  Hill 's 
pupils  in  dramatic  art — Susanna  Maria  Gibber,®^  who  had 
never  before  appeared  in  tragedy.  Hill  had  taken  infinite 
pains  to  instruct  her  in  every  look  and  gesture,  and  to  mark 
every  accent  and  emphasis  in  her  part.  "Her  great  excel- 
lence," according  to  Davies,  "consisted  in  that  simplicity 
which  needed  no  ornament;  in  that  sensibility  which  de- 
spised all  art ;  there  was  in  her  person  little  or  no  elegance ; 
in  her  countenance  a  small  share  of  beauty;  but  .  .  .  the 
harmony  of  her  voice  was  as  powerful  as  the  animation  of 
her  look.  In  grief  and  tenderness  her  eyes  looked  as  if 
they  swam  in  tears ;  in  rage  and  despair,  they  seemed  to  dart 
flashes  of  fire.  In  spite  of  the  unimportance  of  her  figure, 
she  maintained  a  dignity  in  her  action,  and  a  grace  in  her 
step."®-  Unfortunately,  Hill's  delight  in  the  deserved  ap- 
plause of  this  pupil  was  "damped  by  the  unhappy  failure 
of  his  nephew  in  Osman;  the  young  gentleman's  figure  and 
voice  were  by  no  means  disagreeable ;  but  a  certain  stiffness 
in  action  and  too  labored  and  emphatical  an  emphasis  in 

70Lt/e  of  GarricTc,  I,  ch.  13. 

80  January  12. 

81  She  was  the  daughter  of  the  musician  Arne,  and  the  wife  of 
Theophilus  Gibber. 

82  Life  of  Garricl-,  II,  109. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  143 

speaking,  disgusted  the  critics,  who  too  severely  corrected 
a  young  performer,  whom,  on  the  first  night  of  his  acting, 
they  cruelly  exploded.  "^^  Young  Hill  retired  from  the 
stage  after  that  evening. 

Voltaire  was  ''too  generous  to  disclaim"  his  ZaJire, 
"though  naturalized  in  England."^*  Through  his  friend 
Thieriot,  he  signified  to  Hill  his  pleasure  at  the  success  of 
the  English  performance;  and  in  the  Dedicatory  Epistle 
prefixed  to  the  second  edition  (1736)  of  the  tragedy,  he 
referred  in  flattering  terms  to  the  translation  and  to  the 
translator — "M.  Hill,  homme  de  lettres,  qui  parait  con- 
naitre  le  theatre  mieux  qu'aucun  auteur  anglais.  "^^  He 
praised  Hill  especially  for  abandoning  a  long-established 
custom  of  English  playwrights — that  of  concluding  each 
act  with  a  rhymed  couplet  or  two,  containing  a  comparison. 
This  statement  contained  several  slight  inaccuracies,  which 
Lessing  took  pleasure  in  pointing  out  later.^*^     But  the 

83  Davies,  Life  of  Garrick,  I,  ch.  13. 

84  Hill  to  Voltaire,  June  3,  1736,  Works,  I,  241. 

85  Voltaire  makes  one  little  criticism  of  Hill 's  translation.  Altliough 
Hill  has,  he  says,  generally  reproduced  the  decorum  of  the  French 
play  in  the  expression  of  love,  he  has  yielded  to  old  custom  in  one  or 
two  places: — when  Osman  tells  Zaire  that  he  no  longer  loves  her,  she 
weeps,  and  Osman  exclaims,  ' '  Zaire,  vous  pleurez ! ' '  The  translator, 
not  content  with  this  simplicity,  makes  Zara  grovel  at  the  sultan's 
feet,  but  does  not  change  the  Sultan  's  exclamation ;  the  sultan  ought 
to  have  said,  remarks  Voltaire,  ' '  Zaire,  vous  vous  roulez  par  terre ! ' ' 

86  Hamburgisclie  Dramaturgie,  XV,  June  19,  1767.  Lessing  points 
out  that  rhymed  couplets,  by  no  means  always  containing  a  compari- 
son, are  common  in  English  plays  from  Shakespeare  on,  at  the  end  of 
act  or  scene ;  but  they  are  not  invariably  found  before  Hill 's  day,  nor 
did  they  disappear  as  a  result  of  his  influence — a  statement  made  by 
Voltaire;  and  in  Zara  itself.  Hill  ends  several  acts  with  couplets, 
though  not  with  a  comparison.  As  Lessing  says,  "Es  sind  nicht  mehr 
als  nur  drei  Unwahrheiten  in  dieser  Stelle ;  und  das  ist  f iir  den  Herren 
von  Voltaire  eben  nicht  viel. "  In  Appendix  I  of  L.  Morel's  Thorn- 
son  the  whole  matter  is  discussed  and  an  attempt  made  to  support 
Voltaire. 


144  AAEON    HILL 

praise  of  Hill's  translation  as  accurate  is  on  the  whole 
deserved.  He  follows  the  French  text  closely,  merely 
warming  a  few  speeches  with  his  own  poetic  fire,  and 
softening  the  character  of  Osman  by  many  touches  of 
gallantry,*'^ 

Voltaire  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  mention  what  Hill 
was  careful  to  point  out  in  the  Prompter  (114), — that  in 
this  play  Voltaire  had  ' '  been  nobly  warming  himself  at  the 
fire  of  our  English  Othello."  At  this  time  the  English 
were  disposed  to  be  rather  pleased  and  flattered  than  other- 
wise by  such  evidence  of  French  appreciation  of  Shake- 
speare. The  play  is  based  on  the  conflict  between  religion 
and  love  in  the  breast  of  Zara,  a  maiden  of  Christian 
parentage,  who  has  been  a  captive  from  infancy  in  the 
hands  of  the  Saracens.  She  is  passionately  in  love  with 
the  generous  young  Sultan  and  he  with  her,  and  they  are 
about  to  be  married,  when  she  discovers  in  the  noble  captive 
general,  Lusignan,  her  own  father,  and  in  young  Nerestan, 
just  returned  from  France  with  a  ransom  for  the  Chris- 
tians, her  brother.  The  joy  of  this  recognition  is  followed 
by  general  dismay,  when  the  father  and  brother  find  that 
Zara  is  herself  a  Mohammedan  and  about  to  become  the 
bride  of  the  Sultan ;  they  beg  her  to  adopt  the  religion  of 
her  ancestors  and  give  up  her  love.  Meanwhile,  the 
Sultan's  jealousy  is  aroused  by  her  troubled  manner  and 

87  Cf .  ' '  Lorsque  les  Sarrasins,  de  carnage  f umants, 

Eevinrent  1  'arraeher  a  nies  bras  tout  sanglants ' ' 
and  Hill's 

"When  from  my  bleeding  arms  fierce  Saracens 
Forced  the  lost  innocent,  who  smiling  lay 
And  pointed  playful  at  the  swarthy  spoilers." 
Hill's  sultan  says  gallantly: 

"For  Zara — ^but  to  name  her  as  a  captive 
Were   to   dishonor  language ' ' 
a  touch  all  Hill's  own. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  145 

her  interviews  with  Nerestan,  whom  he  does  not  know  to  be 
her  brother;  he  discovers  a  secret  meeting  between  them, 
rashly  stabs  Zara,  then  learns  the  truth  from  Nerestan,  and 
kills  himself  in  despair,  after  bidding  the  survivors  to  make 
known  his  unhappy  story.  The  resemblance  to  Othello — 
in  the  unfounded  jealousy  of  the  Sultan,  his  reliance  upon 
a  confidant  (much  less  interesting  than  lago),  his  murder 
of  the  woman  he  loves,  his  remorse,  and  suicide — is  very 
obvious.  In  the  death  of  old  Lusignan,  from  joy  at  his 
release  and  at  the  discovery  of  his  long-lost  children,  there 
is,  as  Professor  Lounsbury  has  pointed  out,  a  reminiscence 
of  Lear.^^  This  play  is  usually  considered  to  be  the  best 
of  Hill's  attempts;  it  continued  to  be  acted  at  intervals  for 
many  years,  and  was  republished  in  a  number  of  editions. 

Alzire  was  produced  at  Paris  in  January,  1736 ;  and 
when  Hill  wrote  to  Voltaire  in  June,  he  had  the  pleasure 
of  assuring  him  that  the  task  of  translating  and  producing 
it  in  England  was  nearly  complete.  His  bookseller  had 
sent  him  the  French  play  about  three  weeks  before ;  he  had 
lost  no  time  in  adapting  it  for  representation;  and  the 
actors  were  already  perfect  in  their  parts.  Haste,  he  ex- 
plained to  Voltaire,  had  been  necessary — ''to  protect  you 
from  a  winter  storm  of  mercenary  pens,  that,  tempted  by 
your  Zaire's  success,  were  threatening  to  disjoint  Alzira."^^ 
It  was  acted  on  June  18,  1736,  at  Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields,  and 
Rad  a  run  of  nine  nights.  The  Prince  of  Wales  honored 
Alzira  with  such  "warm  and  weighty"  applause  that  Hill 
was  encouraged  to  dedicate  it  to  him. 

The  prologue  breathes  an  air  of  generous  patronage  of 
France : 

"  Eich  Britain  borrows,  but  with  generous  end; 
Wliate'er  she  takes  from  France,  she  takes  to  mend." 

88  Shalcespeare  and  Voltaire,  78-80.  Voltaire 's  indebtedness  is  there 
analyzed  in  detail. 

89  Worl-s,  I,  241. 
11 


146  AARON    HILL 

And  the  Prompter,  a  few  weeks  before,  had  taken  even 
Voltaire's  private  character  under  its  protection:  "I  have 
heard  a  thousand  petty  falsehoods  in  disadvantage  of  this 
gentleman's  private  character,  not  one  of  which  I  have 
been  able  to  believe,  since  first  I  read  his  writings.  And 
yet,  admitting  these  things  truths,  they  ought  to  weigh  but 
light  against  those  virtues  which  his  works  have  taught  the 
public."''*'  This  particular  work  Voltaire  had  written  to 
show  how  the  true  spirit  of  religion  overcomes  the  natural 
virtues — a  laudable  endeavor  that  quite  deserved  the 
Prompter's  commendations  The  scene  is  laid  in  Peru. 
Don  Alvarez,  a  model  of  all  the  Christian  virtues,  and  a 
marvel  in  the  eyes  of  the  Indians  who  have  learned  to 
expect  only  cruelty  from  Christians,  delegates  his  power  to 
his  son,  Don  Carlos,  who  loves  Alzira,  daughter  of  the 
conquered  Indian  king.  Believing  her  Indian  lover  dead, 
and  pressed  by  Alvarez  and  by  her  father,  she  marries 
Carlos.  Then  the  lover,  Zamor,  returns  with  a  band  of 
followers,  makes  a  desperate  assault  upon  the  city,  and  is 
defeated  and  captured.  Of  course,  there  are  moving  scenes 
of  despair  between  Alzira  and  her  lover.  At  length  Zamor 
attacks  Carlos  (behind  the  scenes),  wounds  him  mortally, 
and  is  condemned,  together  with  Alzira,  to  death — unless 
he  will  turn  Christian.  He  refuses  with  scorn.  Then 
Carlos,  who  in  the  rather  slow  process  of  dying  from  his 
wound  has  grown  as  mild  as  his  father,  is  brought  in,  for- 
gives his  slayer,  and  expires ;  and  Zamor,  astonished  at  the 
change  wrought  in  his  enemy  by  Christian  principle,  is 
promptly  converted,  and  allowed  to  marry  Alzira. 

"A  moderate  tragedy,"  is  Genest's  verdict.  Voltaire 
did  better  when  he  snatched  a  brand  from  OtJiello.^^  Hill 
translates  rather  more  freely  than  in  the  earlier  play,  and 

00  No.  159,  May  14,  1736. 

91  As  Colley  Gibber  expressed  it  in  the  prologue  he  wrote  for  Zara. 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  147 

breaks  up  some  of  the  long  speeches  of  declamation;  and 
he  improves  upon  Voltaire  by  making  the  altars  tremble 
at  the  marriage  of  Carlos,  and  Heaven  draw  back.  Carlos, 
too,  is  more  gallant  than  Voltaire's  Gusman.  Once  or 
twice,  there  is  unexpected  music  in  Hill's  blank  verse: 

"  And  I  have  lived  to  see  my  father's  throne 

O'erturned,  and  all  things  changed  in  earth  and  heaven."    (Ill) 
"  My  taste  of  time  is  gone ;  and  life  to  me 

Is  but  an  evening-'s  walk,  in  rain  and  darkness."     (V) 

The  kind  regard,  which,  up  to  this  time,  Hill  had  felt 
for  Voltaire  and  his  work,  now  suffered  a  change.  Hill, 
anticipating  IMommsen,  had  what  Da\aes  calls  "an  un- 
common predilection"  for  the  character  of  Caesar;^-  it 
amounted,  in  fact,  to  an  obsession.  He  believed  that  Caesar 
was  wronged  in  the  popular  estimation:  no  error  was 
more  general  or  less  excusable  than  that  he  was  a  tyrant; 
he  was  the  noblest  patriot  of  antiquity,  and  died  a  martyr 
to  the  public  liberty  he  was  accused  of  violating.^^  Wlien, 
therefore,  Voltaire  chose  to  write  a  tragedy  on  Caesar, 
exalting  the  character  of  Brutus,  Hill  promptly  took  fire. 
But  Voltaire  did  much  worse — he  slandered  not  only 
Caesar,  but  the  taste  of  the  English  nation.  Having  found 
it  impossible  to  translate  for  the  delicate  French  taste  all 
of  Shakespeare's  "monstrueux  ouvrage"  on  the  subject,  he 
had  written  La  Mort  de  Cesar  "dans  le  gout  anglais,"  to 
fiiake  France  acquainted  with  the  English  muse.  It  was  a 
tragedy  without  love,  without  even  any  female  characters; 
and  it  exalted  the  love  of  liberty  above  all  other  passions. 
In  these  respects,  it  displayed  "le  genie  et  le  caractere  des 
eerivains  anglais,  aussi  bien  que  celui  du  peuple  romain. '  '^* 

92  Life  of  Garrick,  1,  ch.  13. 

93  See  Hill's  pamphlet,  The  Merit  of  Assassinntion  (1738).  This 
defense  of  Caesar — quite  readable  on  the  whole — sets  forth  Hill's 
interpretation  of  Caesar's  career. 

94  Preface  to  La  Mort  de  Cesar,  1736. 


148  AARON   HILL 

Brutus,  the  stern  patriot,  learns  that  he  is  the  son  of  Caesar, 
but  he  allows  no  small  consideration  like  that  to  alter  his 
determination  to  slay  the  tyrant  of  his  country.  Voltaire 
thus  represented,  as  Hill  said,  "as  an  example  of  national 
virtue,  an  inhuman  and  bloody  enthusiast,  who,  having 
plotted  to  assassinate  his  benefactor,  under  suspicion  or 
appearance  of  tyranny,  persists  in  and  executes  the  murder, 
even  after  discovering  that  it  is  upon  the  person  of  his 
father ! '  '^^  He  must  have  a  mistaken  idea  that  our  country 
likes  butchery ! 

To  refute  these  slanders  upon  England  and  Caesar,  Hill 
wrote  a  play  of  his  own  in  1737,  retaining  the  tale  of 
Brutus 's  parentage,  but  so  contriving  the  plot  that  Brutus 
is  led  to  disbelieve  the  story.  The  place  which  England 
would  never  refuse  to  women  in  tragedy  is  taken  by 
Calphurnia  and  Portia,  who  interfere  in  state  affairs  in  a 
most  annoying  manner.  It  is  very  curious  that  both  Hill 
and  Voltaire  were  devotedly  attached  to  their  plays  on 
Caesar — an  attachment  shared  by  no  one  else.  It  was  not 
until  1743  that  La  Mort  de  Cesar  had  a  hearing  on  the 
Parisian  stage,  and  then  it  was  coldly  received ;  and  as  for 
The  Roman  Revenge,  Hill  for  ten  years  importuned  friends, 
managers,  and  actors  in  vain  in  its  behalf.  The  French 
play  has  one  striking  advantage  over  the  English  one — it 
is  very  much  shorter;  but  I  shall  not  compare  them 
further,  for  no  discussion  could  escape  the  infection  of 
their    dullness.®*'     When   they   met   Caesar,    both   the    in- 

95  Letter  to  Bolingbroke,  June  25,  1738,  Worls,  I,  270. 

96  Hill 's  reputation  for  dullness  is  perhaps  clue  more  than  anything 
else  to  this  play  and  to  the  interminable  letters  that  he  wrote  about  it. 
The  following  references  will  furnish  material  to  anyone  desirous  to 
see  how  far  into  the  domain,  of  boredom  a  fixed  idea  can  lead  a  man: 
letters  to  Pope,  July  31,  August  29,  September  3,  November  8,  Decem- 
ber 9,  1738  (WorJcs,  1,  291,  295,  301,  308,  320),  and  January  15,  1739 
(I,  328)  ;  to  Bolingbroke,  June  25  and  July  21,  1738  (I,  270,  II,  417)  ; 
to  Fleetwood,  1739  (II,  13)  ;  to  Mallet,  December  9,  1738  (I,  323) ; 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  149 

genious  Mr.  Hill  and  the  brilliant  INI.  Voltaire  went  down 
to  defeat. 

Plill's  resentment  of  Voltaire's  imputations  as  to  the 
English  taste  in  tragedy  was  shared  by  many  of  his 
countrymen,  who  presently  began  to  depreciate  Voltaire, 
and  to  taunt  him  with  his  Shakespearean  plagiarisms. 
Their  irritation  was  greatly  increased  by  some  remarks 
which  he  prefixed  to  his  Merope,  published  in  1744.  After 
mentioning  the  introduction  of  a  love  episode  into  a  play 
on  the  same  subject  produced  in  London  in  1731,"'^  he  goes 
on:  "depuis  le  regne  de  Charles  II,  I'amour  s'etait  empare 
du  theatre  d 'Angleterre ;  et  il  faut  avouer  qu'il  n'y  a  point 
de  nation  au  monde  qui  ait  peint  si  mal  cette  passion.  .  .  . 
II  semble  que  la  meme  cause  qui  prive  les  Anglais  du  genie 
de  la  peinture  et  de  la  musique,  leur  ote  aussi  celui  de  la 
tragedie.  "^^  Here  was  matter  enough  for  wrath,  and  it 
forced  more  people  than  Hill  into  an  "abatement  of  the 
disposition"  they  once  had  felt  "to  look  upon  him  as  a 
generous  thinker." 

Hill  commenced  reprisals  by  translating  Merope,  "upon 
a  plan  as  near  Voltaire's  as  I  could  wring  it  with  a  safe 
conscience."  "I  undertook  this  piece,"  he  tells  Mallet,^^ 
' '  upon  a  motive  more  malignant  than  it  should  have  been ; 
for  I  but  sought  to  mend  with  the  bad  view  to  mortify 

j;o  Popple,  September  15,  October  24,  1740  (II,  67,  71) ;  to  Eich, 
November  4,  1742,  and  two  undated  letters  (II,  3,  43,  49)  ;  to  Grarrick, 
c.  1749  (II,  154)  and  June  30,  1746  (II,  244).  He  begs  Garrick  to 
act  Caesar — it  will  show  Ms  weight !  ' '  Caesar  had  more  than  all  the 
weight  of  Cato, ' ' — a  most  true  observation.  He  also  wrote  to  Kichard- 
son  about  it — Forster  MSS.,  July  21,  1746. 

97  This  was  the  Merope  of  George  Jeffreys.  See  Miscellanies  in 
verse  and  prose,  by  George  Jeffreys,  London,  1754.  Hill  wrote  the 
prologue  and  epilogue.     It  is  a  pretty  bad  play. 

98  Dedication  to  "  M.  le  Marquis  Scipion  Maffei,  auteur  de  la  Merope 
Italienne,"  upon  which  Voltaire  founded  his  play. 

99  September  29,  1748.     Worlcs,  II,  345. 


150  AARON    HILL 

him."  The  play  tells  the  story  of  Merope,  widow  of 
Cresphontes,  king  of  Messene,  murdered  years  before  by  the 
general  Polyphontes.  "When  the  play  opens,  this  general 
is  trying  to  force  the  queen  into  a  marriage  with  him,  to 
secure  his  own  power  more  effectively;  but  she  hopes  for 
the  coming  of  the  one  son  who  had  escaped  the  general 
massacre,  and  had  been  raised  in  safety  and  in  ignorance 
of  his  birth  by  a  faithful  friend.  This  youth,  upon  his 
arrival  in  Messene,  alone  and  unrecognized,  is  arrested  for 
the  murder  of  a  man  who  had  attacked  him  upon  the  road. 
Merope 's  fear  that  the  dead  man  may  have  been  her  son  is 
apparently  confirmed  by  several  suspicious  circumstances, 
and  she  is  about  to  sacrifice  her  own  son  in  the  supposed 
murderer,  when  the  guardian  opportunely  arrives  and  re- 
veals the  truth.  There  is  still  danger  from  Polyphontes, 
but  he  is  outwitted  and  slain  at  the  sacrificial  altar  by  the 
prince. 

Of  the  changes  introduced  by  Hill,  a  few  may  be  men- 
tioned: Voltaire's  Polyphontes  is  the  tyrant  dictating 
terms — Hill's  Polyphontes  talks  of  love  and  addresses  the 
^Queen  as  his  sister  and  his  soul;  Hill  introduces  some 
description  of  the  Arcadian  simplicity  in  which  the  prince 
was  reared;  Hill  embellishes  the  account  of  the  prince's 
prayer  in  the  temple  (II,  2)  with  trembling  altars  and 
glories  beaming  around;  and  he  brings  into  the  'scene, 
where  Merope  attempts  to  sacrifice  her  son,  a  funeral  song 
and  a  procession  of  virgins  in  white.  There  are  other  re- 
spects in  which  Hill  differs  from  Voltaire,  sometimes  for 
the  better,  sometimes  for  the  worse. 

His  translation  was  finished  in  1745;^°'*  but  not  until 

100  Letter  to  Theo.  Gibber,  September  27,  1745,  WorJcs,  II,  307. 
Gibber  was  in  jail  for  debt  at  the  time,  and  Hill  offered  Merope  for 
his  relief.  See  A  serio-comic  Apology  for  part  of  the  Life  of  Mr. 
Theophilus  Gibber,  etc.,  97-98  (1748),  where  Gibber  acknowledges 
Hill  'a  generosity.    Hill 's  Insolvent,  based  on  Massinger  's  Fatal  Dowry 


HILL   AND   THE   STAGE  151 

April  15,  1749,  after  many  delays  and  many  letters,  did 
Garrick  finally  produce  it  at  Drury-Lane.^°^  It  had  nine 
performances.  In  the  Advertisement  to  the  edition  printed 
in  the  same  year,  Hill  quoted  Voltaire's  remarks  about  the 
incapacity  of  the  English  for  tragedy,  music,  and  painting, 
and  then  carried  the  war  into  France:  "he  must  pardon 
me,  if  I  am  sensible  that  our  unpolished  London  stage  .  .  . 
has  entertained  a  nobler  taste  of  dignified  simplicity  than 
to  deprive  dramatic  poetry  of  all  that  animates  its  passions, 
in  pursuit  of  a  cold,  starved,  tame  abstinence ;  which,  from 
an  affectation  to  shun  figure,  sinks  to  flatness ;  an  elaborate 
escape  from  energy  into  a  grovelling,  wearisome,  bald, 
barren,  unalarming,  chillness  of  expression,  that  emascu- 
lates the  mind  instead  of  moving  it."  This  was  a  kind  of 
"hostile  style,"  as  Hill  admits,  not  only  towards  Voltaire, 
but  towards  French  tragedy  generally;  and  it  illustrates 
the  methods  that  were  coming  to  be  adopted  by  English 
writers,  who  defended  Shakespeare  by  attacking  Comeille 
and  Racine.  Hill  concludes  by  announcing  his  intention, 
shortly  to  publish  a  comparison  between  the  French  and 
English  stages,  which  will  convince  Voltaire  himself  that 
we  have  better  actors  and  finer  writers.  And  with  this 
flourish  of  trumpets,  Hill's  dramatic  activity  came  to  an 
end. 

From  the  extent  and  variety  of  all  these  theatrical  in- 
terests that  have  been  related,  one  might  expect  to  find 

and  written  at  Gibber's  request,  but  not  acted,  is  the  subject  of  some 
correspondence  between  them  about  April,  1746  (WorTcs,  II,  312  f.). 

101  See  Forster  MS.,  Hill  to  Eichardson,  January  11^  1749,  and 
Eichardson  to  Hill,  January  12;  Hill  to  Garrick,  January  20,  March 
29,  July  11,  and  August  28,  1749  {Worls,  II,  368,  370,  375,  387)  ;  to 
Mallet,  January  12,  1749  (II,  352) ;  to  the  actor  who  took  the  part  of 
Polyphontes,  April  7  and  8,  1749  (II,  147  f.).  Hill  received  148  1. 
from  three  nights'  benefit  of  the  play  (Hill  to  Mallet,  May  5,  1749, 
Works,  II,  361). 


152  AARON    HILL 

Hill's  friends  chiefly  among  actors,  managers,  and  play- 
wrights. But  Hill  was  more  than  projector,  more  than 
general  theatrical  expert ;  he  was  also  critic,  essayist,  letter- 
writer,  and  poet  in  many  kinds, — epic,  pindaric,  amatory, 
satiric.  Workers  in  any  field  of  literary  endeavor  were 
likely  to  meet  Mr.  Hill  there.  Those  literary  connections 
not  already  treated  will  be  taken  up  in  the  succeeding 
chapters,  approximately  in  chronological  order:  first,  the 
friendship  with  Thomson  and  a  group  of  minor  poets 
about  1725;  then,  that  with  Pope;  and  finally,  that  with 
Richardson. 


CHAPTER  V 

HILL    AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725 

From  about  1720  to  1728,  Hill  was  a  more  prominent 
figure  among  contemporary  writers  than  at  any  subse- 
quent time.  The  general  situation  in  the  literary  world 
and  the  state  of  his  private  affairs  were  both  favorable. 
The  deaths  of  Addison,  Prior,  and  Eowe,  the  absence  of 
Swift  from  England,  the  preoccupation  of  Pope  with  his 
work  of  translation,  made  it  comparatively  easy  for  a  minor 
author  to  assume  a  position  of  some  consequence.  Then, 
these  were  the  lean  years  between  generous  patronage  of 
men  of  letters  by  the  State,  and  their  support  by  the  read- 
ing public.  The  first  two  Georges  were  notoriously  in- 
different to  literature ;  and  Walpole,  who  came  to  power  in 
1721,  was  so  much  the  "poet's  foe,"  in  Swift's  phrase,^ 
that  by  1732  or  1733  most  of  these  poets  were  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Opposition  with  Bolingbroke,  employing  every 
weapon  of  dramatic  and  personal  satire  against  "Walpole. 
Only  more  or  less  disreputable  hack  writers,  like  Henley 
,(" Orator  Henley"),  Arnall,  and  Joseph  Mitchell,  were 
engaged  to  support  the  ministry.  In  neglect  of  poets,  the 
nobility,  with  few  exceptions,  followed  the  example  of  the 
court.  Thomson,  in  a  letter  to  Mallet  of  September  20, 
1729,  points  out  the  difficulty  of  securing  subscriptions, 
inveighs  bitterly  against  ' '  some  of  our  modern  Goths ' '  who 
have  agreed  among  themselves  to  encourage  no  subscrip- 
tions whatever,  under  a  penalty,  and  ends  by  damning 
"their  corruption,   their  low  taste,   and   all  their  stupid 

1  Epistle  to  Mr.  Gay,  1731. 

153 


154  AAEON   HILL 

expense."^  It  was  a  "fashionable  expedient,"  according 
to  Hill,  to  return  the  "dedicator's  Gilt  Book,  with  this 
short  apology  for  not  accepting  it, — my  Lord  gives  his 
service,  and  says  he  does  not  understand  these  matters"; 
probably  they  think  themselves  "under  no  obligation  to 
pay  for  compliments  which  their  conscience  tells  them  they 
have  no  right  to."^ 

For  any  writer,  himself  independent  of  patronage,  there 
was  thus  ample  opportunity  of  generous  service  to  less 
fortunate  brothers.  Hill  was  relatively  independent,  and 
he  was  for  the  moment  unoccupied.  His  projecting  fever 
was  temporarily  checked  by  the  general  discredit  that  over- 
took "bubbles"  after  the  South  Sea  disaster;  his  latest 
scheme  to  run  a  theatrical  company  had  ended  in  disap- 
pointment; the  failure  of  Henry  V  had  made  him  very 
pessimistic  in  regard  to  the  stage;  he  had  not  yet  caught 
sight  of  those  Golden  Groves  that  called  him  from  London 
in  1726 ;  and  he  was  probably  easier  financially  than  he 
ever  was  after  the  York  Buildings  Company  fiasco.  In 
brief,  he  had  a  short  interval  of  comparative  leisure  for  the 
exercise  of  his  pen  and  his  benevolence. 

The  position  of  influence,  thus  made  possible  by  the 
state  of  literature  and  of  his  own  affairs,  became  an  ac- 
complished fact  with  the  success  of  the  Plain  Dealer.  This 
periodical,  and  Savage's  Miscellany,  which  might  more  ap- 
propriately have  appeared  under  Hill's  name,  will  serve  as 
convenient  foci  for  the  discussion  of  Hill's  literary  rela- 
tionships. An  examination  of  the  first  will  show  how  it 
served  the  interests  of  struggling  writers,  and  gave  Hill  a 
certain  status  as  a  wit  and  a  man  of  influence ;  and  a  discus- 
sion of  the  second  will  bring  out  further  developments  of 
the  friendships  indicated  in  the  Plain  Dealer,  and  will  dis- 

2  Philobiblon  Society  Miscellanies,  vol.  IV. 

3  Flain  Dealer,  no.  73. 


HILL   AND   HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  155 

play  Hill  as  the  leading  spirit  in  the  little  circle  of  poets 
and  versifiers  who  figure  in  its  pages.  One  poet,  James 
Thomson,  who  appears  in  the  Plain  Dealer,  but  not  in  the 
Miscellany,  was  as  closely  identified  with  the  group  about 
Hill  as  ^lallet  or  Savage ;  but  as  the  story  of  his  friendship 
with  Hill  is  told  chiefly  in  their  correspondence,  it  will  be 
best  to  consider  it  separately.  Thomson's  genius  has,  after 
all,  lifted  him  out  of  this  group  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
given  him  the  right  to  separate  mention. 

Hill's  brief  connection  with  the  British  Apollo  in  1708 
had  not  been  followed  up  by  active  interest  in  any  of  the 
periodicals  and  newspapers  that  multiplied  with  bewilder- 
ing rapidity  after  the  success  of  the  Tatter.  The  mortality 
among  them  was  great:  some,  like  Addison's  TF/r/gr  Ex- 
aminer, did  not  survive  beyond  a  few  numbers,  but  new 
ones  sprang  up  immediately  in  their  places.  Aside  from 
the  papers  that  confined  themselves  to  news  items  and 
advertisements  of  books  and  drugs,*  most  of  these  journals 
were  frankly  political.  This  is  not  surprising,  in  view  of 
the  stirring  events  of  the  years  from  1710  to  1725, — the 
ministry  of  Harley  and  Bolingbroke,  the  treaty  with 
France,  the  accession  of  the  Hanover  line,  the  impeachment 
of  the  fallen  ministers,  the  Jacobite  rebellion,  the  dissen- 
sions among  the  Whig  leaders,  the  South  Sea  panic,  and 
the  Atterbury  conspiracy.  Before  1715,  the  Examiner, 
the  Review,  the  Mercator,  the  Guardian,  the  Englishman, 
engaged  the  talents  of  Swift,  Defoe,  Addison,  Steele,  and 
other  writers  of  importance.  From  that  time  until,  in 
1727,  Bolingbroke  became  identified  with  the  Craftsman, 
the  political  papers  are  dreary  reading, — dulness,  scandal, 
invective,  indecency,  and  bigotry,  unrelieved  by  talent. 
Occasionally,  periodicals  appeared  with  other  than  political 
aims:  Theobald's  Censor,  for  instance,  with  some  essays  of 

*  The  Post-Boy  is  an  example. 


156  AARON    HILL 

interest  and  merit;  the  Doctor,  offering  instruction  in 
manners  and  morals;  the  Instructor,  which  abandoned  the 
attempt  to  reform  mankind  after  six  numbers;  the  Free- 
Thinker,  edited  by  Ambrose  Phillips  and  others.  Of  these 
only  the  last  can  bear  comparison  with  Hill's  paper,  and  it 
had  ceased  before  the  appearance  of  the  first  number  of  the 
Plain  Dealer.  In  1724-5,  Hill  had  to  himself  the  field  of 
the  periodical  of  miscellaneous  essays  after  the  Spectator 
pattern,  and  he  produced  one  of  the  very  few  readable  col- 
lections between  the  Spectator  and  the  Bamhler. 

Characteristically,  he  undertook  the  Plain  Dealer,  with 
William  Bond,  as  a  charitable  enterprise — "for  the  ad- 
vantage of  an  unhappy  gentleman  (an  old  officer  in  the 
army)."°  It  came  out  twice  a  week,  from  March  23,  1724, 
to  May  7,  1725,  and  was  designed  not  only  to  entertain,  but 
to  advance  learning,  virtue,  and  politeness.  Bond,  in 
dedicating  the  second  edition  (1734)  to  Lord  Hervey,  his 
relative,  refers  mysteriously  to  the  genius  concerned  with 
him  in  the  undertaking,  whose  name  he  is  not  at  liberty  to 
reveal;  and  he  devotes  most  of  the  dedication  to  extrava- 
gant praise  of  the  unknown  and  to  nauseous  flattery  of 
Hervey.  As  an  essayist,  the  genius  bears  comparison  ^nth 
Addison:  "He  is  everywhere  remarkable  for  the  same 
propriety,  both  as  to  words  and  thoughts ;  he  is  as  refined, 
polite,  easy,  and  genteel  a  writer,  as  graceful  and  familiar, 
as  sublime  and  as  facetious,  as  sharp  and  as  sprightly,  as 
smooth  and  as  strong,  as  pathetic  and  concise  at  times,  and 
yet,  at  times,  as  copious  too  and  as  fluent,  as  learned  and 
sententious,  in  fine  as  full  of  all  kinds  of  seasonings  and 
ornaments"  as  the  subjects  require.  He  thus  combines  in 
himself  all  the  desirable  (and  contradictory)  qualities  of 
all  the  essayists  who  ever  wrote. 

A  eulogy  less  comprehensive  would  be  more  useful  as  a 

5  Gibber  'a  Lives,  V,  264. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  157 

guide  to  the  authorship  of  the  separate  papers.  According 
to  the  traditional  witticism  ascribed  to  Savage,  Hill  and 
Bond  wrote  by  turns  six  numbers,  and  the  quality  of  the 
production  was  observed  so  regularly  to  rise  during  Hill's 
weeks  and  fall  during  Bond's  that  Savage  nicknamed  them 
"the  contending  powers  of  light  and  darkness.""  Un- 
fortunately, this  easy  solution  of  the  question  of  authorship 
does  not  stand  examination.  Perhaps  the  first  twenty-four 
numbers  were  enough  to  inspire  Savage's  remark:  in  the 
first  group  of  six  nothing  suggests  Hill ;  in  the  second,  three 
are  in  his  style ;  in  the  third,  none ;  in  the  fourth,  at  least 
two  are  unquestionably  his.  But  from  there  on,  difficulties 
increase:  Nos.  25-30  should  be  Bond's,  but  three  are  cer- 
tainly Hill's;  and  so  it  goes  through  the  rest  of  the  one 
hundred  and  seventeen  papers.  Fairly  reliable  evidence 
of  authorship  lies  in  autobiographical  references;  in  an 
exclamatory  style  full  of  "bold  experiments  in  language";'^ 
in  sentiments  typical  of  Hill  on  projects,  or  the  stage,  or 
Caesar ;  in  quotations  from  his  poems ;  and  in  praise  of  the 
work  of  his  friends.  By  these  tests,  fully  one-half  fall  to 
his  share.  Other  collaborators  have  been  suggested, — 
Savage,  in  the  catalogue  of  the  Hope  Collection  at  the 
Bodleian,  and  Young,  by  his  biographer,  M.  Thomas. 
Those  papers  that  are  undoubtedly  Hill's,  however,  are  of 
so  pronounced  a  quality,  compared  with  many  that  may  or 
may  not  be  his,  that  they  clearly  give  to  the  Plain  Dealer 
such  individuality  as  it  has. 

A  survey  of  the  contents  reveals  obvious  imitations  of 
the  Spectator:  for  instance,  the  description  of  the  group  of 
people  (Patty  Amble,  Ned  Volatile,  Sir  Portly  Rufus, 
Major  Stedfast,  and  so  on,)  who  figure  in  the  first  and  some 
subsequent  papers ;  the  account  of  the  death  of  Sir  Portly ; 

6  Johnson 's  Lives,  ed.  G.  B.  Hill,  II,  341,  n.  7. 

7  Ibid.,  II,  340. 


158  AARON   HILL 

a  revery  in  Westminster  Abbey;  reflections  upon  witch- 
craft and  petty  superstitions.^  Somewhat  in  the  Spectator 
style  are  the  discussions  on  manners  and  morals, — mas- 
querades, gambling,  short  wigs,  excessive  drinking,  stock- 
jobbing, riding-habits,  moustaches,  and  like  matters.^  There 
are  dissertations,  usually  illustrated  by  a  story  either  too 
obvious  to  be  interesting  or  too  irrelevant  to  be  enlight- 
ening,^" on  good-breeding  and  politeness,  true  and  false 
wit,  true  and  false  decency,  patriotism,  duelling,  friend- 
ship, and  party  spirit.^^  Sometimes  correspondents  (prob- 
ably invented  for  the  occasion)  dream  dreams  and  feel 
unaccountably  obliged  to  tell  Mr.  Plain  Dealer  about  them ; 
or  ask  his  advice  in  their  silly  love  difficulties."  There 
are  invectives  against  narrow  and  petty  notions  of  trade 
— there  speaks  the  projector;  against  unmerited  respect 
paid  to  mere  rank;  and  against  "double-entendre," — 
a  remonstrance  that  would  be  more  effective  if  the  Plain 
Dealer  did  not  himself  now  and  then  indulge  in  a  form  of 
wit  unpleasantly  characteristic  of  the  age.^^  Most  of  the 
papers  are  neither  better  nor  worse  than  second-rate  imita- 
tions of  the  Spectator  manner ;  but  a  few  are  for  some 
reason  or  other  interesting  enough  to  deserve  particular 
mention. 

No.  12,  expressing  vigorous  disapproval  of  capital 
punishment  for  insignificant  crimes,  is  typical  of  Hill's 
humanity.  A  man,  he  notes,  is  infinitely  more  valuable 
than  his  beast  or  his  furniture ;  he  cannot  bear  to  see  the 
execution  of  poor  wretches  who  perhaps  stole  to  avoid 
starvation.     That  human  life  is  worth  more  than  property 

8Nos.  8,  13,  19,  117;  no.  79;  no.  42;  no.  93. 

9  Nos.  2,  4,  33,  39,  41,  112,  113. 

10  For  example,  nos.  9  and  35. 

11  Nos.  5,  6,  8,  11,  31,  44. 

12  Nos.  26,  43,  47,  58,  78,  81. 

13  Nos.  30,  85;  38;  7;  64,  76. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  159 

is  not  yet  fully  recognized  either  in  or  out  of  the  law- 
courts;  but  the  atrocious  penal  code,  against  which  he  de- 
claims in  the  following  paragraph,  has  disappeared : 

"  I  am  convinced  that  if  it  were  possible  to  see  on  some  such 
plain  as  that  of  Salisbury,  under  one  assembled  prospect,  the 
whole  number  of  men  and  women  who  have  been  executed  for 
theft  only,  in  all  the  counties  of  this  kingdom,  within  the  memoi'y 
of  any  person  of  but  a  moderate  advance  in  years, — such  a 
dreadful  demonstration  of  the  waste  which  is  made  by  this  sweep 
of  the  sword  of  justice  would  be  a  startling  inducement  to  those, 
whose  province  it  is  known  to  be,  to  weigh  with  pity  and  delib- 
eration, whether  punishments  more  adequate  and  more  politic, 
too,  than  death,  might  not  easily  be  appropriated  to  a  number 
of  petty  crimes,  which  ever  were  and  ever  must  be  unavoidably 
frequent  in  all  peopled  places;  being  the  necessary  consequences 
either  of  the  wants  or  the  depravity  of  the  lowest  part  of  the 
human  species."  ^* 

No.  30  gives  a  lively  picture  of  the  opposition  to  inocula- 
tion. This  prejudice  against  a  manifestly  beneficial  thing 
is  to  Hill  merely  another  instance  of  a  trait  of  his  country- 
men which  he  had  sad  occasion  to  note  only  too  often, — 
their  fixed  aversion  to  novelty.  The  arguments  against  the 
practice  are  as  amusing  as  those  of  the  Boyars  of  Russia, 
who  opposed  the  Czar's  design  of  a  canal  betwen  the  Volga 
and  the  Tanais  on  the  ground  of  its  impiety — God  had  not 
made  the  rivers  to  run  together.  Hill  is  prodigal  of  facts 
as  well  as  exclamations  about  the  effects  of  inoculation,  and 
he  compliments  Lady  Mary  "Wortly  Montagu  by  quoting, 
with  a  very  fair  amount  of  commendation,  his  own  poem 
to  her.^^ 

1*  No.  80  is  on  a  similar  subject— a  remonstrance  against  exploiting 
crime  by  writing  up  the  lives  of  criminals. 

15  In  "George  Paston's"  Lady  Montagu  and  her  Times,  305,  this 
paper  is  claimed,  but  without  any  proof,  for  Mary  Astell;  and  Hill's 
poem  is  assumed  to  be  hers,  though  it  is  included  in  his  Works.  A 
mere  impression  scarcely  justifies  the  ascription. 


160  AARON   HILL 

No.  69  is  a  paper  on  "Woman's  Rights,  conceived  as  a 
theme  for  infinite  jest.  Even  Patty  Amble  herself  was 
probably  amused  at  her  own  oratory :  *  *  How  are  we  repre- 
sented, when  none  of  our  sex  are  permitted  to  sit  and  vote 
for  us?  Is  this  free  government?  Is  this  to  be  subject 
to  no  laws  but  those  we  have  fiirst  given  consent  to  ?  Either 
let  us  as  a  distinct  body  have  a  right  to  govern  ourselves; 
or  admit  an  equal  number  of  us  to  sit  where  laws  are  made 
for  us.  And  I  believe  I  may  venture  to  undertake  .  .  .  that 
we  will  be  modest  enough  in  that  case,  to  content  ourselves 
with  a  bare  negative  upon  all  bills  that  concern  us."  It  is 
interesting  to  see  a  joke  become  in  a  couple  of  centuries  a 
great  political  problem;  no  bare  negative  will  satisfy  the 
Patty  Ambles  of  today.^^ 

Several  papers  upon  love  must  be  noticed  because  of  this 
interesting  statement  in  Bond's  dedication:  the  author 
whose  name  he  conceals  differs  from  alnjost  all  of  the 
greatest  wits  in  his  treatment  of  love;  "he  writes  of  love 
with  as  much  decency  as  a  good  divine  performs  the  most 
solemn  ceremony  belonging  to  it,  and  yet  expresses  as 
warmly  and  as  naturally  all  the  true  delicacies  and  re- 
jouissances  of  it"  as  any  lover  could  wish;  "every  thought 
and  every  expression  is  masterly,  moving,  but  yet  in  such 
a  way  as  is  most  mannerly  and  modest;  a  vestal  may  read 
it  without  a  blush,"  and  yet  will  chastely  desire  to  change 
her  state  and  feel  an  "honest  commotion."  To  examine 
the  essays  in  question,  with  this  frightful  commendation  in 
mind,  reveals  nothing  very  startling  except  a  comparative 
absence  of  indecency  in  the  discussion  of  the  love  affairs  of 
correspondents.  Several  papers  are  little  more  than  ex- 
tracts from  Hill's  poem,  The  Picture  of  Love, — a  harm- 
less bit  of  verse,  written  of  course  in  an  exaggerated  vein 

iG  Fielding  wrote  several  papers  in  the  Champion  (January  and 
May,  1740),  in  much  the  same  spirit  as  this  of  Hill's. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  161 

and  expressing  what  Hill  conceived  to  be  rapture.  No.  45 
adds  to  the  poetical  rhapsody  one  in  prose :  a  lover  is  like  a 
god!  "He  has  the  prophet's  sacred  privilege  to  be  rapped 
[sic]  out  of  himself.  .  .  .  Lovers  converse  like  angels,  by  a 
kind  of  intuition!  They  hear  one  another's  souls  and  pre- 
vent each  other's  wishes.  Like  divinities  quitting  their 
shrines,  they  disrobe  themselves  of  their  bodies,  and  inter- 
mingle their  meeting  minds,  as  we  see  two  lights  incorporate. 
Their  souls  glide  out  from  their  eyes,  to  snatch  embraces  at 
a  distance,"  and  so  on.  This  is  absurd  enough  to  cause  an 
honest  commotion.  But  thoughts  like  the  following,  while 
not  remarkable,  are  yet  rare  in  a  period  when  cynical  jests 
about  love  were  far  more  usual  than  raptures :  "  I  am  fond 
of  thinking  we  might  draw  from  love  a  proof  of  the  soul's 
immortality.  .  .  .  Why  else  are  the  joys  of  love  mixed  with 
melancholy  and  unsatisfied  tremblings?  These  increase, 
indeed,  and  refine  the  pleasure.  But  they  convince  us  that 
there  is  a  union  more  adapted  to  our  mind's  free  essence, 
and  which  our  bodies  are  not  fine  enough  to  permit  them 
the  enjoyment  of." 

This  somewhat  lengthy  survey  of  the  Plain  Dealer  is  justi- 
fied, if  it  has  suggested  a  reason  for  the  paper 's  success.  That 
it  did  win  a  fair  degree  of  notice  and  favor  is  indicated  by 
its  republication  in  1730  and  again  in  1734,  The  editor  of 
a  successful  periodical  could  grant  or  withhold  favors,  and 
it  was  characteristic  of  Hill  to  delight  in  granting  them. 
He  encouraged  the  work  of  his  friends,  and  he  made  new 
friends  by  his  hospitality  to  hitherto  unknown  genius. 

Among  the  friends  praised  in  the  Plain  Dealer  was  Ed- 
ward Young.  That  Hill  had  been  interested  in  Young's 
work  as  far  back  as  1719  is  proved  by  his  MS.  notes  in  the 
Bodleian  copy  of  the  Paraphrase  of  a  Part  of  the  Booh  of 
Job.  These  observations  are  not  numerous :  often  merely  a 
star  of  commendation  after  such  lines  as  "strikes  the  dis- 
12 


162  AARON    HILL 

tant  hills  with  transient  light, ' '  or  comments  like  ' '  absurd, ' ' 
' '  frightful  anticlimax, "  "  nonsense, ' '  after  such  a  couplet  as 

"  The  spotted  plagues  that  marked  his  limbs  all  o'er 
So  thick  with  pains,  they  wanted  room  for  more." 

The  criticisms,  comparatively  trifling  as  they  are,  indicate 
to  M.  Thomas  that  Hill  had  grasped  "le  veritable  interet 
de  eette  nouvelle  composition  de  notre  auteur,  a  savoir  le 
progres  sensible  de  la  forme  et  parfois  meme  la  perfection 
du  style. "^^  Any  testimony  by  a  modern  scholar  to  Hill's 
aeuteness  in  literary  criticism  is  worth  noting.  If  unac- 
quainted at  this  time,  the  two  writers  may  have  met  in  1719 
or  1721,  when  Young's  plays,  Busiris  and  TJie  Revenge, 
were  acted  by  Hill's  friends  at  Drury-Lane. 

Of  Young's  movements  from  1723  to  1727  few  details  are 
known,  except  that  he  was  in  London ;  M.  Thomas  suggests 
that  he  wrote  for  reviews — perhaps  even  for  the  Plain 
Dealer:  "C'est  la  que  nous  croyons  retrouver  la  trace  des 
meditations,  assez  sombres  desormais,  de  notre  auteur.  En 
effet,  il  y  parait  nombre  d 'articles  sur  des  sujets  qui  lui 
tenaient  a  coeur."^^  He  instances  as  probably  Young's 
work  no.  32,  made  up  of  reflections  on  death.  As  the 
meditations  are  such  as  might  be  inspired  in  any  sensitive 
mind  by  the  transitoriness  of  life,  and  are  expressed  in 
terms  not  beyond  any  writer  with  a  gift  for  the  obvious, 
and  as  they  are  illustrated  by  one  of  Hill's  poems,^"  it 
seems  a  little  unnecessary  to  ascribe  them  to  Young.  To 
ask  "what  has  become  of  all  those  busy  bustlers  who  have 
lived  and  died  before  us?"  or  to  picture  the  body  as  a 
prison  for  the  saul,  released  finally  by  death,  might  occur 
to  Hill  as  well  as  to  Young.  And  Hill  might  even  express 
such  ideas  rather  well,  for  his  style  occasionally  has  literary 

17  W,  Thomas,  Le  Pocte  Edward  Young,  327. 

18  Ibid.,  83. 

19  To  Clelia,  Worls,  IV,  55. 


HILL   AND    niS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  163 

flavor.  This  passage — one  of  the  best  in  the  essay — is  not 
beyond  him :  ' '  When  we  die,  those  we  leave  are  a  number 
very  small  and  inconsiderable  in  comparison  with  those  we 
go  to.  The  Patriarchs,  the  Prophets,  the  Apostles,  the 
heroic  conquerors,  the  shining  poets  of  antiquity,  and  the 
whole  assembled  congress  of  long  known  and  glorious  char- 
acters, who  have  flourished  from  the  world's  creation,  are 
to  be  the  company  to  whose  familiar  converse  Death  will 
introduce  us."^*' 

Three  other  papers  that  suggest  Young  to  his  biographer 
are  still  less  likely  to  be  his.-^  On  the  whole,  the  evidence 
of  Young's  collaboration  on  the  Plain  Dealer  is  of  the 
slenderest  sort.  On  the  other  hand,  whether  or  not  Hill 
was  returning  a  favor,  as  M.  Thomas  suggests,  he  devotes 

20  M.  Thomas  gives  as  a  parallel  passage  Alonzo  's  soliloquy  at  the 
beginning  of  the  last  scene  of  Act  IV  of  his  Bevenge:  "It  is  death 
joins  us  to  the  great  majority,"  etc.  The  parallelisms  in  phrase  are 
not  striking. 

21  No.  87:  a  letter  discussing  the  place  of  passion  in  poetry,  and 
the  value  of  the  Bible  as  a  source  of  inspiration,  furnishes  a  text  for 
the  editor's  comments,  illustrated  by  long  quotations  from  Dennis; 
Hill  wag  in  the  habit  of  quoting  Dennis  in  matters  of  criticism;  the 
paper  concludes  with  Hill's  metrical  version  of  HahakTcuk ;  only  the 
letter,  then,  could  be  the  work  of  Young.  No.  Ill  (misprinted  116  in 
M.  Thomas's  book)  :  most  of  this  exhortation  to  consider  the  sun  and 
the  stars  and  the  wonder  of  them,  and  reflect  whether  or  not  they  prove 
the  contrivance  of  an  infinite  architect,  is  quoted  from  the  "author  of 
tlfe  excellent  discourse  The  Beligion  of  Nature  Delineated," — Dr. 
Wollaston,  who  died  in  1724  (8th  ed.,  1759,  142  f.)  ;  and  certain 
"beaux  vers  sur  le  systeme  de  Newton"  are  stanzas  II  and  XVIII  of 
HiU  's  Judgment  Bay.  No.  67 :  this  contains  a  eulogy  of  the  Duke  of 
Chandos,  "avec  lequel  Young  aura  des  relations  plus  tard";  it  is  a 
paper  in  Hill's  most  projecting  spirit,  showing  the  Eoyal  African 
Company  how  much  more  they  would  gain  by  using  their  negroes  to 
cultivate  the  land  in  Africa,  instead  of  transporting  them ;  there  is  no 
impossibility  m  this  design,  except  to  "narrow  and  confined  under- 
standings and  spirits  of  a  heavy  fabric";  as  the  Duke  of  Chandos 
was  connected  with  the  company,  the  eulogy  was  pertinent. 


164  AARON   HILL 

two  numbers  to  Young's  First  and  Second  Satires,  quoting 
from  them,  and  praising  one  as  the  work  of  some  consider- 
able genius,  and  the  other  as  full  of  the  liveliest  energy.^- 
Young  must  have  appreciated  such  friendly  advertising.^^ 

Dennis,  also,  who  figures  prominently  in  the  Plain 
Dealer,  must  have  been  an  acquaintance  of  long  standing, 
though  in  no  intimate  sense.  Hill  often  showed,  both  by 
word  and  by  deed,  his  high  estimate  of  Dennis's  criticism. 
It  was  to  Dennis  and  Gildon  that  in  1716  he  dedicated  his 
Fatal  Vision;  precisely  because  they  were  severe  and  watch- 
ful critics,  they  best  deserved  the  labor  of  the  Muses. 
Dedications  to  men  of  letters  were  almost  unknown  at  the 
time;  this  of  Hill's  was  not  epoch-making,  as  was  Pope's  to 
Congreve  a  little  later,  simply  because  the  Fatal  Vision  was 
not  epoch-making.  But  it  was  an  interesting  departure 
from  prevailing  custom. 

To  the  influence  of  Dennis's  ideas  may  perhaps  be 
ascribed  Hill's  fondness  for  Scriptural  paraphrase;  it  has 
been  pointed  out  that  he  versified  nearly  all  of  Dennis's 
favorite  passages  in  the  Old  Testament.^*  Dennis  was 
known  for  his  insistence  on  emotion  as  the  basis  of  poetry, 

22  Nos.  92  and  110.  From  the  First  Satire,  11,  129-142,  255-264  are 
quoted;  from  tlie  Second,  11.  213  f. 

23  Pleasant  relations  with  Hill  continued  for  a  time  at  least,  for  it 
was  at  Young's  house  that  Pope  and  Hill  first  met,  perhaps  about 
1730-31  (Pope  to  Hill,  October  29, 1731.  Col.  of  1751)  ;  but  they  prob- 
ably ceased  after  Young's  settlement  at  Welwyn.  Hill  referred  to  the 
Night  Tlioughts  in  a  rather  discriminating  criticism  (Hill  to  Eichard- 
son,  July  24,  1744.  Corres.,  I,  102)  :  "As  to  Dr.  Young,  I  know  and 
love  the  merit  of  his  moral  meanings;  but  am  sorry  that  he  over- 
flows his  banks,  and  will  not  remind  himself  (when  he  has  said  enough 
upon  his  subject),  that  it  is  then  high  time  to  stop.  He  has  beauties 
scattered  up  and  down  in  his  Complaints  that,  had  he  not  so  separated 
them  by  lengths  of  cooling  interval,  had  been  capable  of  carrying 
into  future  ages  such  a  fire  as  few  past  ones  ever  equalled.  What  a 
pity  want  should  be  derived  from  superfluity !  ' ' 

24  H.  G.  Paul,  John  Dennis,  204,  n.  24. 


HILL  AND  HIS  CIRCLE  ABOUT  1725  165 

and  on  the  Bible  rather  than  the  classics  as  a  source  of  in- 
spiration; he  stood  "as  an  advocate  of  the  exaltation  and 
inspiration  of  the  poet,  that  so  ill  accorded  with  the  pre- 
vailing spirit  of  the  times  that  he  was  derisively  dubbed 
Sir  Longinus,"-^  Hill  undoubtedly  agreed  with  these 
views,  for  he  preached  rapture  and  enthusiasm  in  his 
critical  remarks  as  diligently  as  he  tried  to  display  them  in 
his  poetry.-^  One  illustration  of  his  paraphrases,  for  which 
he  employed  chiefly  Pindaric  verse,  will  be  sufficient. 
Plain  Dealer  no,  74  makes  some  disparaging  comments  on 
the  paraphrases  sung  in  churches,  and  commends  the  poet, 
whose  version  of  the  104th  psalm  is  about  to  be  quoted,  for 
keeping  his  eye  on  the  "sense  and  dignity  of  the  original." 
"Nothing  can  be  more  unlike  the  thoughts  of  David  than 
what  we  sing  as  his  in  most  of  our  churches."  Surely 
nothing  can  be  more  unlike  the  thoughts  of  David  than 
this: 

"  Lightnings  in  millions  sweep  his  fiery  way, 
And  round  his  paths  in  blue  meanders  play ; " 
or  this: 

"  But  the  proud  mountains  which  ambitious  grow, 
And  viewing  heaven  disdain  the  world  below, 
Nor  will  to  humble  brooks  refreshment  owe, 
Sip  the  moist  clouds  and  cool  their  heads  in  snow."  -"^ 

25  Paul 's  Dennis^  134. 
.  26  The  list  of  Ms  poems  inspired  by  the  Scriptures  includes  the 
Creation,  the  Judgment  Bay,  paraphrases  of  the  104th,  107th,  114th, 
and  part  of  the  55th  psalms,  a  portion  of  Habakkuk,  chapters  5,  6, 
and  7  of  Matthew,  part  of  II  Kings,  part  of  eh.  16  in  Exodus,  and  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  The  first  two  were  published  separately  in  1720  and 
1721 ;  several  of  the  others  first  appeared  in  the  Flain  Dealer,  and 
Savage's  Miscellany;  they  were  all  reprinted  in  Hill's  WorTcs,  vols. 
Ill  and  IV. 

27  Thomson's  version  of  the  same  psalm  is  at  least  as  bad  as  Hill's, 
though  less  rapturous: 

"That  man  may  be  sustained  beneath  the  toil 
Of  manuring  the  ill-producing  soil."     (Aldine  ed.,  II,  142). 


166  AARON    HILL 

Hill  also  undertook,  perhaps  about  1716,  an  epic  on  Gideon 
— in  twelve  books  of  irregular  Pindaric  verse.  It  was  com- 
plete in  MS.  in  1724,^®  but  only  three  books,  apparently, 
were  ever  published,  and  these  not  until  1749.  It  was  pro- 
vided with  all  the  proper  epic  material, — descriptions, 
similes,  episodes,^^  single  combats,  battles,  visions,  debates, 
and  miracles;  and  adorned  by  Hill's  "inimitable  style," — 
a  style  characterized  by  an  astonishing  collection  of  ad- 
jectives in  -y,  -ive,  -ful:  speary,  beamy,  curvy,  sheltry, 
grovy,  druggy,  embry,  flashful,  scopeful,  feastful,  retortive, 
revertive.^'^  Still,  even  in  Hill's  version,  the  interest  of  the 
narrative  is  not  quite  lost.  One  wonders  whether  Dennis 
was   among  the   few   enemies   or   the   many   admirers   of 

Several  Plain  Dealers  merely  honor  Dennis  by  quotation 
from  his  works,^-  but  two  numbers  mingle  their  praise  with 
practical  appeals  in  his  behalf.  In  connection  with  the 
proposals  for  Dennis's  Miscellaneous  Tracts,^^  Hill  observes 
(no.  54)  that  the  length  of  the  subscription  list  to  Pope's 
Homer  is  no  proof  of  the  age's  partiality  to  poets,  for  Pope 
has  so  many  friends  that  to  be  out  of  the  list  is  to  be  out  of 

28  In  a  letter  to  "Clio"  of  April  9,  1724  (Worls,  I,  24),  he  prom- 
ises to  have  the  twelve  books  "writ  fair." 

29  Sareph  and  Hamar,  Worlcs,  IV,  243;  Orel)  and  Joash,  Prompter 
No.  59 ;  Burning  of  the  Bridge,  from  book  VIII,  Prompter  No.  76. 

30  Thomson,  of  course,  employs  many  such  adjectives,  but  less  gener- 
ously than  Hill;  and  Savage  is  guilty  of  heapy,  chippy,  foodful,  and 
so  on  in  his  Excursion.  Dyer  bears  away  the  palm,  when  he  speaks 
of  the  "abstersive"  gums  of  sheep  (in  his  Fleece,  I),  and  of  rubbing 
their  mouths  with  ' '  detersive  bay  salt. ' ' 

31  Cibber's  Lives,  V,  261:  "Gideon  had  its  enemies,  but  many  more 
admirers. ' ' 

32  No.  57  (from  the  Observations  on  Paradise  Lost) ;  No.  87  (from 
his  "noble  dress"  of  the  18th  psalm);  Nos.  60  and  96  (from  private 
letters). 

33  The  Proposals  first  appeared  in  1721;  the  Tracts  were  published 
in  1727. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  167 

fashion.  "But  let  me  see  these  shining  names  to  Mr. 
Dennis's  Miscellaneous  Tracts,  which  he  is  now  publishing 
by  a  subscription  scarce  the  sixth  part  so  chargeable,  and 
I  will  afterwards  suppose  that  they  can  read  as  well  as 
purchase."^*  A  few  months  later,  Dennis's  circumstances 
were  such  that  Rich  offered  him  a  benefit  at  Lincoln  's-Inn- 
Fields,  and  the  Plain  Dealer  (no.  82)  comes  out  strongly  in 
support  of  the  plan.  Prejudice  and  stupidity  alone,  Hill 
declares,  are  responsible  for  the  general  insensibility  to 
Dennis's  merits.  Young  writers,  in  terror  of  his  austerity, 
think  him  ill-natured  when  he  is  only  impartial ;  an  enemy 
to  wit  and  learning  when  he  is  an  enemy  only  to  the  pro- 
faners  of  them.  They  should  recognize  that  where  there 
is  art,  there  must  be  criticism.  He  makes  a  final  plea  to 
the  brave  and  beautiful  to  appear  in  the  cause  of  wisdom 
at  the  benefit  performance.^^ 

Hill's  interest  in  Dennis  seems  to  have  been  due  to 
sincere  admiration  of  his  qualifications  as  a  critic,  and  to 
sincere  sympathy  for  him  in  his  distress ;  and  not  to  strong 
personal  feeling,  or  to  gratitude  for  any  reciprocal  atten- 
tions. After  Dennis's  death,  a  short  poem  (unsigned,  but 
later  included  in  Hill's  Works)^*^  appeared  in  the  Gentle- 
man's Magazine f^  and  was  afterwards  chosen  by  the 
author  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  John  Dennis  to  adorn  his  hearse 
in  a  "fragrant  manner."     This  elegy,  "wiredrawn  in  less 

*  34  In  this  paper  Hill  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  value  of  criticism,  using 
Dennis's  comments  on  Blackmore  as  an  illustration,  and  praising  his 
Te  Deum  at  the  expense  of  Blackmore 's  hymn,  Hail,  King  Supreme. 
Had  Blackmore  buoyed  himself  up  by  criticism,  "he  could  never  have 
sunk  so  soon  and  so  shamefully  as  to  tell  us  in  the  fourth  verse  that 
he  who  is  supreme  in  power  is  controlled  by  no  superior. ' '  This,  and 
several  other  examples  of  the  art  of  sinking,  read  like  an  anticipation 
of  the  Treatise  on  the  Bathos. 

35  The  Old  Bachelor,  given  for  Dennis's  benefit,  January  4,  1725. 

36  1754  ed.,  Ill,  421. 
3'  January,  1732. 


168  AAKON    HILL 

than  a  fortniglit's  time,"  according  to  this  author,  "from 
the  brain  of  the  very  pink  of  courtesy  and  poesy,"  apos- 
trophizes Dennis  as  "unsocial  excellence,"  and  goes  on: 

"  Want,  the  grim  recompense  of  truth  like  thine, 
Shall  now  no  longer  dim  thy  destined  shine. 
Th'impatient  envy,  the  disdainful  air, 
The  front  malignant,  and  the  captious  stare, 
The  furious  petulance,  the  jealous  start, 
The  mist  of  frailties  that  obscured  thy  heart, 
Veiled  in  thy  grave,  shall  unremembered  he, 
For  these  were  parts  of  Dennis  bom  to  die !  " 

But  his  nobler  qualities  will  "engage  the  slow  gratitude  of 
time.  "38 

These  lines  prove  that  Hill  by  no  means  overlooked  the 
faults  of  Dennis's  character;  though  he  did  not  suffer 
personally  from  his  attacks,  he  recognized  that  they  were 
often  unjustified,  as  in  the  case  of  Steele.^^  And  when 
Pope,  in  the  course  of  one  of  the  defenses  of  his  own 
perfectly  disinterested  character  which  he  was  in  the  habit 
of  making  to  Hill,  complains  of  the  unkind  construction 
Mr.  Dennis  is  putting  upon  his  efforts  to  work  up  a  sub- 
scription for  him,  Hill's  reply  is  at  once  a  fair  estimate  of 
Dennis,  and  a  delicate  rebuke  of  Pope:  "Where  a  man's 
passions  are  too  strong  for  his  virtues,  his  suspicion  will  be 
too  hard  for  his  prudence.  He  has  often  been  weak  enough 
to  treat  you  in  a  manner  that  moves  too  much  indignation 
against  himself  not  to  leave  it  unnecessary  for  you  also  to 
punish  him.  Neither  of  us  would  choose  him  for  a  friend ; 
but  none  of  the  frailties  of  his  temper,  any  more  than  the 
heavy  formalities  of  his  style,  can  prevent  your  aeknowl- 

38  The  "pink  of  courtesy"  appreciated  neither  the  compliment  nor 
the  biography,  which  he  called  (Prompter  no.  48)  a  "silly  and  mali- 
cious pamphlet. ' ' 

39  Hill  to  Victor,  February  21,  1723  (Victor's  Hist,  of  the  Theatres, 
11,172). 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    .VBOUT    1725  169 

edging  there  is  often  weight  in  his  arguments,  and  matter 
that  deserves  encouragement  to  be  met  with  in  his 
writings. '  '*° 

Neither  Young  nor  Dennis,  though  both  were  praised  in 
the  Plain  Dealer,  and  both  were  friends  of  its  author,  were 
in  the  more  intimate  circle.  They  were  older  than  Hill — 
Dennis  considerably  so — and  already  well-known.  It  was 
in  assisting  the  younger,  still  obscure  writers,  that  Hill  had 
the  best  chance  to  display  his  judgment  and  good-nature. 
The  most  creditable  of  his  deeds  was  his  encouragement  of 
Thomson's  first  efforts  to  gain  a  hearing  in  London;  but 
before  that,  he  had  played  fairy  godmother  to  two  of 
Thomson 's  fellow-countrymen. 

It  was  from  Scotchmen  that  poetry  received,  just  at  this 
time,  a  fresh  impulse.  The  publication  of  the  Seasons 
signified  a  virtual  rediscovery  of  nature;  as  a  theme  for 
poetry,  its  possibilities  had  been  almost  entirely  overlooked 
for  thirty  or  forty  years.  Then,  interest  in  the  literature 
of  the  past — another  neglected  source  of  inspiration — was 
fostered  by  a  Scotchman,  Allan  Ramsay,  whose  selections 
from  early  Scotch  verse  showed  his  own  appreciation  and 
stimulated  others.*^  In  view  of  these  facts,  it  would  be 
pleasant  to  find  in  Hill's  prompt  welcome  of  Mallet  and 
Thomson  a  proof  of  unusual  critical  discernment ;  and  much 
might  be  cited  in  support  of  this  notion.  Unfortunately, 
his  welcome  of  Joseph  Mitchell,  which  was  just  as  enthusi- 
astic, prompts  the  reflection  that  it  was  the  needy  poet, 
rather  than  the  new  impulse,  that  he  saw  coming  from 
Scotland.  Hill  did  realize,  however,  that  interest  in  litera- 
ture had  awakened  in  Edinburgh,  and  he  called  the  at- 
tention of  his  readers  to  a  club  among  the  students  of  the 

*o  Pope  to  Hill,  February  5,  and  Hill  to  Pope,  February  10,  1731, 
Col.  of  1751. 

41  Eamsay  published  Christ's  Kirlc  on  the  Green  in  1716;  his  Ever- 
green (1724)  gave  examples  of  Scotch  poems  before  1600. 


170  AARON    HILL 

University, — the  Grotesque  Club,  founded  to  encourage,  in 
the  words  of  one  of  its  own  members,  "friendship  that 
knows  no  strife,  but  that  of  a  generous  emulation  to  excel 
in  virtue,  learning,  and  politeness."  This  is  only  one  of 
the  indications  that  the  Muses  and  Graces  have  visibly 
fixed  themselves  in  the  learned  seminaries  of  the  North.'*^ 
Among  the  members  of  the  club  were  Mallet,  Thomson — 
"that  dull  fellow  whom  Malcolm  calls  the  jest  of  our 
club"*^ — and  perhaps  the  Joseph  Mitchell  for  whom  Hill 
wrote  his  Fatal  Extravagance. 

About  the  life  of  Mitchell,  the  first  of  the  Scotch  group 
to  come  to  London,  little  definite  is  known,  and  that  not 
much  to  his  credit.  His  friends  are  said  not  to  have  been 
solicitous  to  preserve  the  circumstances  of  his  career;  he 
was  "a  slave  to  his  pleasures,"  and  extravagant  to  an 
extent  that  forced  him  to  be  "perpetually  skulking"  to 
elude  his  numerous  creditors.'**  At  least  as  early  as  Oc- 
tober, 1720,  he  was  in  London.*^  In  1721,  his  Ode  on  the 
Power  of  Music  was  advertised  in  the  second  edition  of 
Hill's  Judgment  Day,  and  he  himself  singled  out  in  the 
preface  as  the  "young  gentleman  of  Edinburgh"  at  whose 
request  the  poem  was  written.  This  reference  puts  the 
beginning  of  his  acquaintance  with  Hill  back  some  months 
at  least  before  March,  1721,  the  date  of  the  preface.  Hill 
is  certain  that  his  ' '  late  admirable  attempts  in  poetry  make 
it  needless  to  tell  the  world  what  they  are  to  hope  from 
his  great  genius." 

Mitchell  himself,  fearful  lest  the  world  may  not  share 
Hill's  opinion,  consoles  himself,  in  the  Advertisement  to  his 
Ode,  with  the  reflection:  "In  company  with  the  ineompa- 

42  Plain  Dealer,  no.  46. 

43  Mallet  to  Ker,  July  31,  1727. 

44  Gibber's  Lives,  IV,  347  f. 

45  Mallet  to  Ker,  October  5,  1720, — "Mitchell,  author  of  Luguhres 
Canius,  now  in  London."     European  Mag.,  XXIII. 


HILL   AND    niS    CIRCLE    .VBOUT    1725  171 

rable  Mr.  Hill  (whose  unrivalled  Muse  he  [the  author]  fol- 
lows at  a  distance,  and  to  whom  he  professes  himself  singu- 
larly obliged)  he  is  prepared  to  suffer  the  worst  treatment 
this  age  can  give,  with  a  pleasure  that  he  could  not  enjoy 
in  the  bubble  of  popular  applause."  Not  a  very  tactful 
remark;  for  however  stoically  Mr.  Hill  might  endure  the 
worst  treatment  from  the  public,  he  by  no  means  expected 
to  receive  it.  In  the  poem  itself  is  a  tribute  to  Hill  by  the 
name  he  bore  among  his  admirers : 

"  Music  religious  thoughts  inspires, 
And  kindles  bright  poetic  fires; 

Fires!  such  as  great  Hillarius  raise  (Aaron  Hill,  Esq.) 
Triumphant  in  their  blaze! 

Amid  the  \ailgar  versifying  throng 
His  genius  with  distinction  show, 

And  o'er  our  popular  metre  lift  his  song. 
High  as  the  Heavens  are  arched  o'er  Orbs  below." 

Hillarius  raised  by  fire  to  so  exalted  a  station,  and  ill- 
treated  by  his  age,  is  surely  placed  by  his  Scotch  friend 
in  a  most  uncomfortable  position.  Mitchell  cannot  speak 
of  him  except  in  flaming  terms :*^  he  is  "sublimely  fired"; 
he  sets  burning  worlds  before  our  eyes;  his  interior  worth 
blazes  in  his  breast;  and  his  heat  first  melted  Mitchell's 
"cogenial  frost. "*^  What  frost  could  withstand  it?  No 
eulogy  of  the  man  who  had  relieved  his  distress,  by  letting 
him  claim  the  authorship  as  well  as  the  proceeds  of  a  suc- 
cessful play,  could  be  too  fervent.^® 

4*5  Hill  perhaps  deserved  them.  He  notes  (preface  to  Judgment 
Day)  that  in  the  Creation  he  had  confined  himself  to  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count; but  he  needed  the  whole  Planetary  System  for  the  Conflagra- 
tion. 

47  See  The  Muse 's  Original,  published  in  1729,  but  probably  written 
about  1721,  as  it  is  said  in  Gibber's  Lives  to  have  been  among  the 
first  of  his  poems. 

4s  TJie  Fatal  Extravagance  was  performed  April  21,  1721. 


172  AAEON   HILL 

Hill  did  not  fail  to  put  in  a  word  for  Mitchell  in  the 
Plain  Dealer:  he  quotes  from  the  Ode  to  Music,  and  he 
devotes  an  entire  number  to  exclamatory  commendation  of 
the  "North  British  Muse,"  whose  poems,  to  Lady  Somer- 
ville  and  on  the  death  of  the  Countess  of  Grantham,  are 
quoted.*^  They  appear  in  Mitchell's  Poems  on  Several 
Occasions  (1729),  in  company  with  further  expressions  of 
gratitude  to  Hill;  one  poem  thanks  him  for  "brassing  his 
Muse 's  brow. ' '  Perhaps  the  state  of  the  brow  of  Mitchell 's 
muse  is  illustrated  by  his  requests  to  "Walpole  in  several 
of  these  poems :  a  modest  suggestion  that  he  would  like  the 
governorship  of  Duck  Island  in  St.  James's  Park  is  fol- 
lowed up  by  a  demand,  first  to  be  made  poet-laureate,  and 
then  secretary  of  state  for  Scotland. 

The  presence  of  both  the  Hills,  together  with  Dyer  and 
Victor,  among  the  subscribers  to  the  1729  volume,  indicates 
the  continuance  of  an  acquaintance  intimate  enough  to 
include  tea-parties  with  Clio  and  Miranda  (Mrs.  Hill). 
But  even  at  the  time  of  these  amicable  tea-drinkings  (about 
1726,  or  earlier),^"  Mitchell  was  not  acceptable  to  some  of 
the  group ;  to  Thomson,  he  was  "that  planet-blasted  fool, "^^ 
and  there  is  a  well-known  exchange  of  courtesies  between 
the  two  poets  over  the  merits  of  Winter.^-  Later  on,  when 
he  had  earned  his  title  of  "Sir  Robert  Walpole 's  poet,"  he 
must  have  been  still  less  popular  among  his  former  friends 

49Nos,  36  and  71. 

50  A  poem  in  the  volume  refers  to  them;  Hill  was  in  Scotland  much 
of  the  time  between  1726  and  1729. 

51  Philobiblon  Society  Miscellanies,  IV,  27.     Thomson  to  Mallet. 

52  Mitchell  sent  back  the  MS.  of  the  poem  with  these  lines: 

"Beauties  and  faults  so  thick  lie  scattered  here, 
Those  I  could  read,  if  these  were  not  so  near." 
Thomson  replied  with  equal  politeness: 

"Why  not  all  faults,  injurious  Mitchell!   why 
Appears  one  beauty  to  thy  blasted  eye?"  etc. 


HILL  AND  HIS  CIRCLE  ABOUT  1725  173 

in  the  Opposition.  There  is  nothing  to  show  how  Hill  him- 
self regarded  the  career  of  his  promising  North  Briton 
after  1729. 

It  was  to  David  Mallet  that  Thomson  confided  his  un- 
flattering opinion  of  Mitchell,  and  perhaps  Mallet  then 
shared  it.  But  a  few  years  before,  while  still  in  Scotland, 
Mallet  had  watched  Mitchell's  proceedings  in  London  with 
great  interest.  He  noted  the  success  of  his  tragedy;  he 
read  "with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure"  one  canto  of  his 
heroi-comical  poem,  The  Ciidgell;  and  he  heard  that  he  was 
"  in  a  very  fair  character  at  London,  .  .  .  valued  by  several 
of  the  greatest  wits,  as  Mr.  Pope,  Mr.  Watts,  Mr.  Hill,  etc. ' ' 
Not  until  he  secured  an  appointment  as  tutor  in  the  Mont- 
rose family,  however,  did  Mallet  himself  come  to  London; 
he  was  a  more  canny  person  than  Mitchell  or  Thomson, 
and  seems  never  to  have  been  in  uncomfortable  straits.  He 
always  played  his  cards  well,  if  not  always  quite  scrupu- 
lously. But  though  he  had  provided  for  his  subsistence, 
he  had  his  literary  reputation  yet  to  make. 

He  brought  with  him,  when  he  came  to  London  about 
August,  1723,  a  ballad  which  he  had  already  shown  to 
Allan  Ramsay,  for  Ramsay's  poem — To  David  Mallocli  on 
his  Departure  from  Scotland^^ — refers  to  him  as 

"  He  that  could  in  tender  strains 
Raise  Margaret's  plaining  shade, 
And  paint  distress  that  chills  the  veins, 
While  William's  crimes  are  red." 

The  discovery,  in  1871^*  and  1878,  of  two  broadsides,  the 
latter  bearing  a  revenue  stamp  of  the  year  1711,  has  proved 
that  some  unknown  earlier  poet  had  raised  Margaret's 
shade  and  painted  her  distress  in  terms  Mallet  paid  him  the 
compliment  of  adopting  almost  verbatim.     The  broadside, 

53  Published  in  1723. 

54  This  copy  is  in  the  British  Museum,  Col.  1876,  folio  107. 


174  AARON    HILL 

probably  itself  based  on  an  older  version  known  at  least  as 
far  back  as  the  time  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  is  entitled 
William  and  Margaret,  an  Old  Ballad.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  IMallet  secured  a  copy  from  one  of  the  travelling 
chapmen  in  Scotland ;  it  must  have  been  unfamiliar,  except 
to  the  class  reached  by  the  chapmen,  to  enable  Mallet  to 
impose  it  on  his  contemporaries  as  his  own.  The  precise 
way  in  which  he  went  about  it  is  not  clear.  He  may  have 
sent  the  ballad  anonymously  to  the  Plain  Dealer;  he  may 
have  arranged  with  the  editor  to  have  it  published  anony- 
mously ;  or  it  may  have  come  into  Hill 's  hands  through  one 
of  the  scattered  broadsides,  and  been  first  printed  without 
Mallet's  knowledge. 

In  the  36th  number  of  the  Plain  Dealer,  Hill  announces 
his  intention  of  unveiling  obscure  merit,  and  after  a  fling 
or  two  at  the  poor  judgment  displayed  by  men  of  quality 
and  at  the  present  low  state  of  wit,  he  eulogizes  the  muse 
of  our  ancestors  in  the  following  picturesque  terms :  ' '  The 
slender  shape  of  the  modern  Muse  is  made  for  becoming  the 
hoop-petticoat;  but  there  was  a  charming  majestic  naked- 
ness in  that  nervous  simplicity  and  plain  soundness  of 
pathetic  nature  which  went  to  the  hearts  of  our  forefathers, 
without  stopping  at  their  fancy,  or  winding  itself  into  their 
understanding  through  a  maze  of  mystical  prettinesses. " 
All  this  is  prefatory  to  praise  of  the  old  ballads,  and  par- 
ticularly of  William  and  Margaret.  This  and  another 
ballad  he  found  on  the  torn  leaf  of  one  of  the  halfpenny 
miscellanies  known  as  "garlands,"  which  he  picked  up  on 
Primrose  Hill.  Who  the  author  of  "this  melancholy  piece 
of  finished  poetry"  is  he  does  not  know,  but  it  has  a  touch 
of  Homer's  sublimity.  In  fact,  "such  ballads  were  the  rev- 
erend fragments  of  disjointed  Homer,  when  they  were  sung 
about  the  streets  of  the  Grecian  cities,  before  Lycurgus  [sic] 
caused  the  limbs  to  be  assembled  into  union ;  and  so  pieced, 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  175 

redeemed,  and  consecrated  them  to  the  end  of  time."  He 
pleases  himself  with  the  idea  that  Shakespeare  might  have 
written  it — it  has  his  ' '  peculiar,  solemn  power  to  touch  this 
churchyard  terror,  very  visible  in  the  ghost  of  this  ballad. ' ' 
He  discusses  the  poem  in  detail :  the  description  of  the  lady 
"judiciously  detains"  the  reader  and  allows  the  picture  to 
sink  in,  so  that  when  she  opens  her  speech  with  the  sharp 
summons  "Awake!"  we  are  prepared  to  know  and  pity 
her;  "nothing  was  ever  juster,  or  more  strikingly  imagined, 
than  this  comparison  of  the  ghost's  face  to  an  April  sky 
(which  is  at  best  but  faintly  shining,  and  is  here  made 
fainter  still  by  a  scattering  cloud  which  dims  it), — to  the 
shadow,  as  it  were,  ...  of  a  light  not  visible. ' '  Altogether, 
"it  is  a  plain  and  noble  masterpiece  of  the  natural  way 
of  writing. ' ' 

"Were  Primrose  Hill  and  the  halfpenny  garland  a  literary 
device,  or  did  the  ballad  really  come  to  Hill  in  some  such 
way  as  he  describes?  The  fact  that  he  took  the  liberty  of 
altering  "an  obsolete  low  phrase  here  and  there" — thus 
doing  his  little  best  to  destroy  that  simplicity  he  so  much 
admired^^ — lends  some  support  to  his  account :  he  would  be 
less  likely  to  tamper  with  the  work  of  a  living   (even  if 

55  The  different  versions  of  the  first  lines  of  the  ballad  are  interest- 
ing: in  The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle — 

"When  it  was  grown  to  dark  midnight, 
And  all  were  fast  asleep ' ' — 
in  the  broadside — 

"When  all  was  wrapt  in  dark  midnight, 
And  all  were  fast  asleep" — 
in  the  Plain  Dealer — 

"When  Hope  lay  hushed  in  silent  night, 
And  Woe  was  wrapt  in  sleep" — 
in  Mallet's  later  versions — 

"  'Twas  in  the  silent  solemn  hour. 
When  night  and  morning  meet." 


176  AARON    HILL 

anonymous)  author  than  with  a  ballad  he  believed  ancient. 
But  whether  Mallet  had  planned  the  publication  or  not, 
he  found  the  moment  propitious  to  write  to  the  Plam 
Dealer  and  claim  the  poem  so  glowingly  advertised.  In  the 
46th  number,  Hill,  overjoyed  to  find  it  the  work  of  a  young 
North  Briton,  congratulates  Scotland  on  the  possession-  of 
a  rising  genius,  whose  fine  qualities  include,  if  not  uncon- 
sciousness of  his  own  merit,  at  least  sincere  modesty  con- 
cerning it.  He  then  quotes  the  letter  sent  by  the  modest 
young  genius,  who,  after  expressing  surprise  and  pleasure 
that  a  "simple  tale  of  his  writing"  should  merit  the  ap- 
probation of  the  Plain  Dealer,  relates  the  unhappy  accident 
on  which  he  declares  he  based  the  story, — the  betrayal  and 
death  of  a  young  lady  whose  lover  refused  to  marry  her.^® 
The  verse  quoted  by  Merrythought  in  The  Kniglit  of  the 
Burning  Pestle  suggested  to  him  a  ballad  treatment  of  the 
tragedy : 

"  These  lines,  naked  of  ornament,  and  simple  as  they  are, 
struck  my  fancy.  I  closed  the  book,  and  bethought  myself  that 
the  unhappy  adventure  I  have  mentioned  above,  which  then  came 
fresh  into  my  mind,  might  naturally  raise  a  tale  upon  the  appear- 
ance of  this  ghost.  It  was  then  midnight.  All  around  me  was' 
still  and  quiet.  These  concurrmg  circumstances  worked  my  soul 
to  a  powerful  melancholy.  I  could  not  sleep;  and  at  that  time  I 
finished  my  little  poem,  such  as  you  see  it  here." 

Mallet  complained  that  his  letter  was  printed  "without 
his  privacy"  and  "altered  in  some  places  for  the  worst. "^' 
This  sounds  disingenuous — he  could  scarcely  have  had  any 
other  motive  in  sending  it  except  that  of  having  it  pub- 
lished, and  the  injury  it  suffered  through  alteration  was 
probably  a  trifle  compared  with  the  substantial  benefit  of 
the  advertisement.     So  artistic  and  circumstantial  a  nar- 

56  The  lover  and  the  lady  were  both  identified  by  later  critics. 

57  Mallet  to  Ker,  October  17,  1724. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  177 

rative  no  doubt  delighted  Hill  beyond  measure,  and  in- 
creased his  enthusiasm  for  poem  and  author.  The  ballad, 
introduced  under  such  favorable  auspices,  became  popular, 
and  was  reprinted  in  Ramsay's  Tea-Table  Miscellany, ^^  in 
the  Hive,^^  and  in  other  collections,  with  variations  that 
have  furnished  a  pleasant  little  problem  for  later  critics.®** 
Mallet's  reputation  was  made.*'^ 

Had  Mallet  been  persecuted  as  well  as  talented,  Hill's 
support  would  have  been  even  more  enthusiastic  than  it 
was.  Richard  Savage  was  both :  he  not  only  wrote  a 
tragedy,  but  claimed  to  be  the  unhappy  hero  of  one;  and 
the  story  he  told  was  one  to  call  forth  the  most  heart-felt 
sympathy  from  a  man  like  Hill,  and  even  from  the  far 
more  strong-minded  Dr.  Johnson. 

Just  when  Hill  and  Savage  first  became  acquainted  is 

58  Vol.  II  (1724). 

59  Vol.  I  (2d  ed.,  1724). 

60  For  details  of  the  discussion  of  the  ballad  and  of  Mallet 's  author- 
ship see  the  following:  Notes  and  Queries,  7th  S.,  II,  4,  132,  410,  490; 
The  Roxburgh  Ballads,  III,  667  f.;  The  Antiquary,  I,  8,  95,  140 
(March,  1880)  ;  Art.  on  Mallet  in  the  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biography. 

61  His  talent  and  skill  were  sufficient  to  maintain  this  reputation 
during  his  lifetime.  From  the  success  of  Eurydice  (1731),  Mustapha 
(1739),  and  Alfred  (1740),  to  his  marriage  with  the  wealthy  Miss 
Elstob  and  his  appointment  as  under-secretary  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  (1742),  his  rise  was  steady.  After  the  production  of  Eurydice, 
Hill  took  occasion,  in  the  course  of  some  gratuitous  advice  to  Walpole 
(March  12,  1731,  Worls,  1,  51),  to  recommend  Mallet  to  his  favor; 
but  Walpole  did  not  respond,  and  it  was  with  the  Opposition  that 
Mallet  found  his  profit.  When  the  Prince  commanded  the  perform- 
ance of  Mustapha  and  ignored  the  claims  of  Caesar,  Hill  bore  the 
shock  cheerfully, — pleased,  in  fact,  that  it  fell  at  a  time  when  the 
disordered  state  of  his  affairs  made  "the  little  benefit  in  view  from 
the  coming  on  of  a  play  of  some  pleasure  and  use  in  the  prospect" 
(Hill  to  Mallet,  January  25,  1739,  Worls,  1,  330).  They  remained 
on  excellent  terms  until  Hill's  death;  one  or  two  later  incidents  of 
their  friendship  have  a  place  in  the  account  of  Hill's  relations  with 
Eichardson. 

13 


178  AARON    HILL 

not  known.  The  Life  of  Savage,  published  in  1727,  speak- 
ing of  his  loss  of  a  pension  from  the  actress  Mrs.  Oldfield 
after  the  Bubble  disasters,  adds,  "He  would  have  been 
reduced  to  as  great  extremities  as  ever,  if  his  merit  had 
not  recommended  him  to  the  ornament  of  English  poesy, 
Aaron  Hill,  Esq. ;  miserable  as  he  was  in  every  other  part 
of  his  life,  his  intimacy  and  friendship  with  this  gentleman 
w^as  a  happiness  he  has  been  much  envied  for."  And 
Johnson  states  that  for  some  time  before  1723,  Savage  had 
been  distinguished  by  Hill  with  "very  particular  kind- 
ness. '  "^  The  kindness  must  have  been  ill  repaid :  "  I  have 
been  so  angry  with  Mr,  Savage  of  late,"  wrote  Hill  to 
Victor  in  February,  1723,  "that  I  believed  he  could  never 
have  pleased  me  again ;  but  as  he  came  to  me  in  your  letter, 
he  was  so  pleasantly  dressed,  that  I  was  forced  to  receive 
him  smiling,  in  spite  of  spleen  and  resentment,"*'^ 
Savage's  situation  at  the  time — he  was  then  writing  Sir 
Thomas  Overhury — might  well  have  disarmed  Hill's  anger. 
He  was  often  without  lodging  or  meat,  with  no  conveni- 
ences for  study  except  the  fields  and  the  streets;  "there 
he  used  to  walk  and  form  his  speeches,  and  afterwards  step 
into  a  shop,  beg  for  a  few  moments  the  use  of  the  pen  and 
ink,  and  write  down  what  he  had  composed,  upon  paper 
which  he  had  picked  up  by  accident."*'* 

Had  Savage's  distress  failed  to  touch  him,  Hill  was 
not  the  man  to  resist  the  delicate  flattery  of  the  verses 
Savage  sent,  with  a  request  that  Hill  correct  his  tragedy  :^^ 

"  Thy  touch  brings  the  wished  stone  to  pass, 
So  sought,  so  long  foretold; 
It  turns  polluted  lead  or  brass, 
At  once  to  purest  gold." 

62  Johnson's  Lives,  ed.  G.  B.  Hill,  II,  339. 

63  February  21.     Victor's  Hist,  of  the  Theatres,  II,  171. 

64  Johnson 's  Lives,  II,  338-339. 

65  Savage,  Worls,  1791.     The  stanza  quoted  is  the  last. 


HILL  AND   HIS   CIRCLE   ABOUT   1725  179 

Though,  when  the  corrections  came  back,  Savage  was  not 
entirely  delighted  with  the  golden  touch,  and  even  rejected 
several  passages,  Hill  did  not  resent  the  neglect  of  his 
alterations,  and  furnished  the  prologue  and  epilogue.^^ 
Savage  thanked  him  profusely  in  the  advertisement  to  the 
published  tragedy:*'^  "My  gratitude  prompts  me  to  declare 
the  obligations  I  have  to  my  best  and  dearest  friend,  ]\Ir. 
Aaron  Hill,  for  his  many  judicious  corrections  in  this 
tragedy.  On  that  worthy  gentleman  (whose  mind  is  en- 
riched with  every  noble  science,  and  in  whose  breast  all  the 
virtues  of  humanity  are  comprised),  it  will  be  my  pride  to 
offer  my  sentiments  in  a  more  distinguishing  manner  here- 
after."  Possibly  to  this  period  may  be  referred  the  ad- 
monitions mentioned  in  The  Friend,  later  addressed  to  Hill : 

"  Oft  when  you  saw  my  youth  wild  error  know, 
Reproof,  soft-hinted,  taught  the  blush  to  glow. 
Young  and  unfoiTned,  you  first  my  genius  raised. 
Just  smiled,  when  faulty,  and  when  moderate,  praised."  ^^ 

If  Hill  taught  Savage  to  blush,  it  was  an  accomplishment 
he  soon  forgot. 

Without  the  publicity  afforded  by  the  Plain  Dealer,  it  is 
unlikely  that  Savage's  account  of  his  birth  and  his  mis- 
fortunes would  have  obtained  the  wide  credence  and 
aroused  the  sympathy  it  did.  The  steps  in  the  gradual 
elaboration  of  this  story  are  interesting.  When  he  pub- 
lished his  comedy,  Love  in  a  Veil,  in  1718,  he  made  his  first 
public  appearance  as  ' '  Richard  Savage,  son  of  the  late  Earl 
Rivers."  In  Curll's  Poetical  Register  (1719),  he  is  de- 
scribed as  Earl  Rivers 's  son,  and  a  few  details  are  added, — 
details  that  are  meagre  compared  with  the  artistic  complete- 
ness of  the  account  in  the  Plain  Dealer.     The  15th  number 

66  Johnson 's  Lives,  II,  340. 

67  Edition  of  1724. 

68  Savage's  Miscellany,  and  Savage's  Worls,  1791,  I,  165. 


180  AARON    HILL 

printed  a  poem  of  Savage 's,^^  with  a  few  remarks  on  the 
merit  of  the  author  and  the  uncommon  cruelty  of  his 
mother;  and  then,  in  the  28th  number,  appeared  a  letter 
from  ''Amintas, "  Was  this  letter  really  written  by  some 
unknown  Amintas,  or  by  Hill,  or  by  Savage  himself  ?  It  is 
impossible  to  say ;  for  the  device  of  an  anonymous  letter  is 
so  common  that  it  proves  nothing.  But  Savage's  testi- 
mony in  The  Friend  points  to  Hill  as  the  author: 

"  Me  shunned,  me  ruined,  such  a  mother's  rage ! 
You  sung,  till  Pity  wept  o'er  every  page. 
You  called  my  lays  and  wrongs  to  early  fame." 

And  in  the  preface  to  the  Miscellany  he  states  that  the 
author  of  the  Plain  Dealer  pointed  out  his  unhappy  story 
to  the  world  with  a  touching  humanity. 

The  story,  whether  written  by  Hill,  or  Savage,  or 
Amintas,  is  indeed  touchingly  told.  The  narrator,  after 
recounting  several  instances  of  the  mother's  cruelty,  goes 
on  as  follows : 

"I  forbear  to  be  too  particular  on  any  of  these  heads, 
because  I  know  it  would  give  him  pain,  for  whose  sake  only 
I  remember  them.  For  while  Nature  acts  so  weakly  on  the 
humanity  of  the  parent,  she  seems,  on  the  son's  side,  to 
have  doubled  her  usual  influence.  Even  the  most  shocking 
personal  repulses,  and  a  series  of  contempt  and  injuries 
received  at  her  hands,  through  the  whole  course  of  his  life, 
have  not  been  able  to  erase  from  his  heart  the  impressions 
of  his  filial  duty ;  nor,  which  is  much  more  strange !  of  his 
affection.  I  have  known  him  walk  three  or  four  times,  in  a 
dark  evening,  through  the  street  this  mother  lives  in,  only 
for  the  melancholy  pleasure  of  looking  up  at  her  windows, 
in  hopes  to  catch  a  moment's  sight  of  her,  as  she  might 
cross  the  room  by  candle-light."  If  she  but  knew  how 
tenderly  he  thought  of  her,  she  would  surely  relent.  Then 
<59  To  Dyer,  in  praise  of  Clio's  picture  (Savage's  Works,  I,  159). 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE   ABOUT    1725  181 

follow  verses,  written,  says  "Amintas,"  at  a  time  "when  I 
know  not  which  was  most  to  be  wondered  at :  that  he 
should  be  serene  enough  for  poetry,  under  the  extremity  of 
ill-fortune!  Or  that  his  subject  should  be  the  praise  of 
her,  to  whom  he  owed  a  life  of  misery!"  The  lines  appear 
in  Hill's  Works,  as  "made  for  Mr.  S-v-ge,  and  sent  to  my 
Lady  M-ls-d,  his  mother.  "^°  If  they  were  written  by  Hill, 
the  cause  for  Amintas's  wonder  vanishes.  They  picture 
Alexis,  friendless  and  alone,  thrown  in  wild  disorder  on  his 
cold  bed,  and  sighing  over  his  fate,  neglected  by  the  mother 
who  had  cast  him  on  the  world's  bleak  wild.  He  calls  her, 
nevertheless,  "the  sweet  neglecter  of  his  woes,"  whose  soul 
melts  at  every  misfortune  but  his.  Both  letter  and  poem 
conclude  in  somewhat  the  same  strain :  perhaps  the  mother 
needs  merely  to  be  touched  into  a  sense  of  her  mistake  to 
atone  for  it.  Rather  oddly,  the  Plain  Dealer,  in  the  course 
of  his  editorial  comments  on  this  letter,  advises  silence 
about  our  miseries. 

In  no.  73,  Savage  writes  under  his  own  name  in  regard 
to  the  proposal  of  a  Miscellany.  He  expresses  himself  as 
most  grateful  for  the  kind  reflections  made  on  his  un- 
fortunate case  by  the  Plain  Dealer,  and  encloses  "convinc- 
ing original  letters"  to  prove  that  less  had  been  said  of  his 
wrongs  and  sufferings  ' '  than  the  unhappy  truth  could  have 
justified."  These  papers  furnish  one  of  the  puzzles  of  the 
story, — a  puzzle  that  W.  Moy  Thomas,  in  several  articles 
published  in  1858,  solved  very  much  to  Savage's  disad- 
vantage.''^ He  noted  the  inconsistencies  in  the  different  ac- 
counts of  the  finding  of  the  papers;  the  curious  fact  that 
they  were  never  published,  though,  if  authentic,  they  would 
have  established  the  story  beyond  doubt;  and  the  other 
curious  fact  that  they  disappeared  after  convincing  Aaron 

70  IV,  51.    Savage  probably  refers  to  them  in  the  lines  quoted  above. 

71  Notes  and  Queries,  2d  S.,  VI,  361,  385,  425,  445. 


182  AAEON    HILL 

Hill  that  Savage  was  indeed  an  injured  nobleman.''- 
Savage's  latest  biographer,  though  convinced  that  he  was 
no  deliberate  impostor,  and  cannot  be  held  responsible  for 
inconsistencies  in  accounts  not  certainly  written  by  him, 
has  no  solution  for  the  puzzle.''^  Possibly  the  papers  were 
convincing  enough  to  stand  the  scrutiny  of  those  whose 
sympathies  were  already  enlisted  in  his  behalf,  but  not 
convincing  enough  to  be  tested  by  impartial  or  hostile 
examination.  W.  Moy  Thomas  called  Hill  foolish  and 
good-natured  for  believing  in  Savage,  and  Professor  Louns- 
bury  speaks  of  his  abounding  generosity  and  correspond- 
ing lack  of  sense  ;'^*  but  it  is  certainly  no  reproach  to  be 
foolish  and  kind  with  Dr.  Johnson  and  Pope. 

The  Plain  Dealer  articles  had  so  good  an  effect  that 
"many  persons  of  quality,  of  all  ranks  and  of  both  sexes," 
without  waiting  to  be  applied  to,  sent  in  their  subscrip- 
tions ;''^  and  Savage,  going  a  few  days  after  to  Button's 
Coffee  House  (where^  to  save  his  modesty,  he  had  asked 
that  subscribers'  names  be  sent),  found  there  seventy 
guineas,  "which  had  been  sent  him  in  consequence  of  the 
compassion  excited  by  Mr.  Hill's  pathetic  representa- 
tion. "^•^ 

Representations  on  Savage's  behalf  were  continually  re- 
quired of  his  friends.  At  the  time  of  his  conviction  for 
murder  (December,  1727),  Hill  was  undoubtedly  among 
those  who  solicited  his  pardon,  whether  or  not  his  plea 
actually  drew  tears  from  the  Queen  f  and  he  was  probably 

72  Plain  Dealer,  no.  73. 

Ts  S.  V.  Makower:  Richard  Savage,  a  Mystery  in  Biography,  1909. 

T4  T.  R.  Lounsbury,  The  Text  of  ShaTcespeare,  372. 

75  Preface  to  the  Miscellany;  nos.  28  and  73  of  the  Plain  Dealer 
were  reprinted  there. 

76  Johnson's  Lives,  II,  342-343. 

77  As  "I.  K."  states  in  the  life  prefixed  to  Hill's  Dramatic  Works. 
"I.  K. "  cannot  be  trusted  not  to  exaggerate  the  achievements  of  his 
subject;  the  two  poems  {The  Bastard  and  The  Volunteer  Laureate) 


HILL  AND   HIS   CIRCLE   ABOUT   1725  183 

the  author  of  a  letter,  printed  in  the  Life  of  Savage  pub- 
lished during  the  trial,  "supposed  to  be  wrote  by  one  of  the 
gentlemen  before-mentioned  for  having  publicly  expressed 
his  compassion  for  Mr.  Savage's  sufferings."  The  only 
"gentlemen  before-mentioned"  are  Steele,  Wilks,  and  Hill, 
and  the  only  one  of  the  three  who  expressed  his  compassion 
in  a  conspicuously  public  manner  was  Hill.  The  letter  is 
addressed  to  "a  noble  Lord,  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Savage  and 
Mr.  Gregory " ;  as  to  the  former 's  character,  the  writer 
says:  "I  have  known  and  conversed  with  [him]  several 
years,  and  can  therefore  more  fully  speak  him :  I  have  dis- 
covered in  him  a  mind  incapable  of  evil ;  I  have  beheld  him 
sigh  for  the  distressed,  when  more  distressed  himself;  I 
have  seen  him  give  that  relief  to  others,  which  not  long 
before  he  has  in  some  degree  wanted.  He  is  so  far  from  a 
litigious  man,  that  he  was  always  more  ready  to  stifle  the 
remembrance  of  an  injury  than  to  resent  it." 

Whether  Hill  wrote  this  or  not,  it  accurately  represents 
his  attitude  towards  Savage — an  attitude  that  remained 
unchanged  until  Savage's  death,  though  their  relations 
were  much  less  intimate  after  1730.'^^  When  Lord  Tyrcon- 
nel  took  Savage  under  his  protection,  Hill  congratulated 
him  on  this  deed  of  humanity  to  an  unfortunate  kinsman  f^ 
and  later,  having  heard  vague  reports  of  a  quarrel,  he  tried 
to  persuade  Savage  to  make  it  up.®°     The  few  letters  that 

he  declares  to  be  the  work  of  Hill  are  not  among  his  collected  poems, 
and  show  no  special  characteristics  of  his  style;  they  are  probably 
rightly  ascribed  to  Savage. 

"8  Savage's  Wanderer  (1729)  mentions  Hill, — "to  virtue  and  the 
muse  forever  dear."  Hill  refers  to  "poor  unhappy  Savage"  in  a 
letter  to  Eichardson,  April  4,  1745.  Richardson  advised  him  not  to 
read  Johnson's  Life,  because  of  its  references  to  his  peculiar  style. 

"9  Hill  to  Tyrconnel,  March  10,  1731.     WorTcs,  1,  49. 

80  Hill  to  Savage,  June  23,  1736  {WorTcs,  I,  337) :  "I  am  sure  your 
just  sense  of  what  he  once  was  will  prevail  over  any  less  agreeable 
remembrance  of  what  he  mav  have  since  seemed  or  been. ' ' 


184  AARON    HILL 

passed  between  them  are  pleasant  but  not  very  significant. 
Hill  may  have  done  Savage  some  further  service  about 
1736,  in  connection  with  a  law-suit  which  he  offered  to  use 
his  influence  in  settling ;  and  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 
for  November,  1736,  The  Friend,  with  its  tribute  to  Hill, 
was  reprinted.^^  In  the  same  year  Hill  wrote  to  Thomson : 
"Some  of  his  friends  make  complaints  of  certain  little 
effects  of  a  spleen  in  his  temper,  which  he  is  no  more  able 
to  help  and  should,  therefore,  no  more  be  accountable  for, 
than  the  misfortunes  to  which  ...  his  constitution  may 
have  owed  it  originally " ;  a  pension  from  the  king  should 
place  him  above  those  mortifications  in  life  which  "must 
have  soured  his  disposition,  and  given  the  unreflecting  part 
of  his  acquaintance  occasion  to  complain,  now  and  then,  of 
his  behaviour."^ 

Such  charity  would  have  done  Hill  credit  even  if  Savage 
had  been  uniformly  grateful.  But  that  was  not  his  vray. 
His  esteem  was  no  very  certain  possession,  as  Johnson  said ; 
"he  would  lampoon  at  one  time  those  whom  he  had  praised 
at  another.  "^^  And  Hill  did  not  escape.  There  is  a  hint 
in  one  of  Thomson's  letters  of  "barbarous  provocation": 
"Nothing  is  to  me  a  stronger  instance  of  the  unimprovable 
nature  of  that  unhappy  creature  [Savage]  of  whom  you 
speak  so  compassionately,  notwithstanding  of  the  barbarous 
provocation  he  has  given  you,  than  his  remaining  bleak  and 
withered  under  the  influences  of  your  conversation — a  cer- 
tain sign  of  a  field  that  the  Lord  has  cursed."^*  Yet  Hill 
evidently  forgave  this  provocation,  whatever  it  was,  as  he 
had  the  injury  of  three  or  four  years  before. 

SI  Thomson  writes  to  Hill,  May  11,  1736,  Col.  of  1751;  "Poor  Mr. 
Savage  would  be  happy  to  pass  an  evening  with  you;  his  heart  burns 
towards  you  with  the  eternal  fire  of  gratitude;  but  how  to  find  him 
requires  more  intelligence  than  is  allotted  to  mortals. ' ' 

82  May  20,  1736,  Works,  I,  237. 

S3  Johnson 's  Lives,  II,  359. 

84  Thomson  to  Hill,  April  27,  1726.     Col.  of  1751. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ^VBOUT    1725  185 

The  friendship  of  Hill  with  Savage,  and  of  both  with 
Mallet,  Clio,  Dyer,  and  Thomson,  was  most  intimate  while 
the  Miscellany  was  in  process  of  publication ;  and  the  poems 
in  that  collection  give  us  a  glimpse  of  the  little  mutual 
admiration  society  over  which  Hill  presided.  Of  the 
ninety-two  poems,  more  than  one-third — and  among  these 
the  longest  selections — are  Hill's;  they  include  several 
already  published,  several  apparently  new.^'^  The  Picture 
of  Love  is  printed  entire;  there  is  a  long  passage  from  the 
seventh  book  of  Gideon,  some  Scriptural  paraphrases,  a  few 
translations  from  the  Lusiads,  The  Happy  3Ian,^^  letters  on 
riches  and  poverty  by  Mr.  Marshall  Smith  and  Hill,  various 
epitaphs,  serious  and  jocose,  and  complimentary  lines  to 
Mrs.  Howard  and  several  unidentified  but  charming  ladies. 
Of  the  other  contributors,  Savage  himself  comes  next  with 
fourteen  poems;  then  Clio  with  nine;  William  Popple, 
John  Dyer,  and  "Miranda,  consort  of  Aaron  Hill,"  have 
six  apiece;  Mallet,  Mrs.  Haywood,  Concanen,  and  Thomas 
Cooke,  one  or  more.  The  depression  inspired  by  most  of 
this  verse  is  lightened  a  little  by  two  pieces  of  real  merit, — 
Dyer's  Country  Walk  and  Grongar  Hill  (in  its  Pindaric 
form).  Most  noticeably  frequent  are  the  compliments  in- 
terchanged among  the  authors  themselves.  All  the  flattery 
usually  at  the  service  of  noble  patrons  is  here  poured  out 
on  one  another.  Two  duties  were  incumbent  on  members 
of  the  circle :  they  must  vow  devotion  to  Clio,  and  they 
must  praise  Hillarius  and  all  his  works. 

For  this  name  Hill  was  indebted  to  Mrs.  Eliza  Haywood, 
for  whose  Fair  Captive  he  wrote  the  epilogue  in  1721," 

85  All  but  a  few  were  republished  in  Ms  WorTcs. 

86  This  has  a  couplet  that  has  invited  scornful  quotation : 

"Lengths  of  wild  garden  his  near  views  adorn, 
And  far-seen  fields  wave  with  domestic  corn." 
(Johnson's  Lives,  II,  342,  n.  4). 

87  The  epilogue  is  upon  the  hardships  of  a  Turkish  wife,  the  play 


186  AARON   HILL 

His  christening  perhaps  took  place  soon  after,  for  in  an 
Irregular  Ode,  published  in  1724,  Mrs.  Haywood  defends 
the  name  against  the  objections  of  Mr.  Walter  Bowman, 
professor  of  Mathematics:  it  is  "far  beneath  the  mighty 
wearer 's  worth, ' '  but  to  describe  his  charms  in  a  name  is  a 
perplexing  problem: 

"  A  name  it  must  be  whieli  implies 
At  once  the  wonders  of  his  soul  and  eyes; 
Cherubial  sweetness!  godlike  majesty! 
Numberless  myriads  of  di\'inities 
Which  sparkling  in  his  looks,  his  words,  his  works  we  see !  " 

"  Soft  as  his  voice !  but  lofty  as  his  mien. 
Each  thrilling  syllable  pleased  awe  impart, 
Which  through  the  ear  may  strike  the  heart." 

Should  this  task  prove  too  much  for  mortal  wit,  the  poetess 
suggests  a  pilgrimage  to  the  heavenly  throne,  where  Moses, 
Gideon,  and  David,  shining  more  glorious  by  reason  of  his 
lays,  will  hail  your  approach;  angels  will  second  your  re- 
quest ("angels  are  his  admirers  too!"),  and  the  Almighty, 
with  a  pleased  regard,  will  reward  your  devotion  with  the 
gift  of  an  adequate  name.  Until  that  happy  moment, 
Eliza's  choice  shall  live: 

"  Through  every  orb  Hillarius  shall  be  heard, 
And  altars  to  his  shining  virtues  reared."  ^^ 

The  poems  of  Hillarius  had  a  very  disturbing  effect  on 
Mrs.  Haywood;  even  through  the  disguise  of  anonymity, 
assumed  by  the  muse  of  Hill  on  one  occasion,  her  soul 
acknowledged  the  magnetic  call,  and  cried  in  transport — 
*  *  'tis  Hillarius ! "  To  a  thoughtless  inquiry  how  she  liked 
a  poem  of  his,  she  replied  that  every  sense  was  lost  in 

having  a  Turkish  setting,  and  is  precisely  as  decent  and  witty  as  one 
would  expect  on  such  a  subject  in  an  epilogue  of  that  period. 

88  Poems  on  Several  Occasions  (1724)  in  vol.  II.  of  Mrs.  Hay- 
wood's Secret  Histories,  Novels,  and  Poems,  1725. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE   xiBOUT    1725  187 

amazement,  ''transport-shook  Reason  quit  its  tottering 
seat,"  and  she  lay  "o'erwhelmed  in  seas  of  ecstasy." 
Once,  Eliza  was  awed  by  a  vision  of  the  throne  of  wit,  with 
all  the  sons  of  poetry  about  it;  but  a  voice  directed  her  to 
return  to  the  world  below  if  she  wished  to  find  all  the 
beauties  of  past  poets  united  in  one  person,  with  a  new 
charm  added.  This  convinced  her  that  she  never  could  be 
calm  again,  till  she  grew  less  "sensible,"  or  Hill  less 
glorious.^**  Hill,  too,  had  a  flattering  vision  of  Eliza,  and 
addressed  to  her  a  few  other  short  poems ;  one  line  expresses 
the  effect  she  had  on  him :  "Her  looks  alarm !  but  when  she 
writes,  she  kills."'"'  On  the  whole,  however,  Mrs.  Hay- 
wood must  be  acknowledged  the  greater  proficient  in  the 
gentle  art  of  flattery — Hillarius  never  ascended  the  highest 
heaven  of  invention,  where  her  muse  moved  freely  among 
the  patriarchs  and  the  angels,  under  the  pleased  regard  of 
the  Almighty. 

Nor  did  any  other  of  Hill's  admirers  rise  quite  to  her 
heights,  though  several  of  them  did  rather  well.  In  Henry 
V,  for  instance,  Clio  sees  "Hillarian  fire  refining  Shake- 
speare's gold";  and  Concanen,  varying  the  metaphor,  de- 
clares that  Hill  found  Shakespeare's  play  copper  and  left 
it  gold.**^  In  the  case  of  Gideon,  Dyer  and  Savage  seem 
helpless  to  do  much  more  than  quote  long  extracts  with 
despairing  admiration ;  they  have  no  hope  of  rivalling  some 

89  Mrs.  Haywood  edited  the  Tea  Table.  In  no.  26,  May  18,  1724,  in 
a  discussion  of  the  present  state  of  poetry,  is  a  reference  to  Aaron 
Hill,  who  excels  in  epie  and  dramatic  poetry  both;  and  to  the  un- 
fortunate son  of  the  late  Earl  Kivers,  renowned  in  tragedy  and 
occasional  verse. 

90  To  Eliza  {Miscellany,  90);  Eliza's  Designed  Voyage  to  Spain 
(Worls,  III,  363).  The  Vision  (Miscellany,  71)  becomes  in  Worls, 
III,  55,  The  Beconciliation,  and  Eliza  becomes  Cleora. 

91  All  these  poems  are  in  the  Miscellany. 


188  AARON    HILL 

of  its  "surprising  pictures.""-  Savage  does  enter  the  lists 
with  Mrs.  Haywood  in  a  passage  describing  how  Hillarius  's 
song  flies  with  Pindaric  fire: 

"Wafted  in  eharmful  music  through  the  air     (Gideon) 
Unstopped  by  clouds,  it  reaches  to  the  skies, 
And  joins  with  angels'  hallelujahs  there, 
Flows  mixed  and  sweetly  strikes  the  Almighty's  ear." 

Savage  and  Mrs.  Haywood  were  friends,  and  no  doubt 
she  had  other  friends  in  the  group.  But  their  Aspasia  was 
"Clio,"  or,  more  prosaically,  Martha  Fowke,  who  married 
a  Mr.  Sansome,  and  died  in  1736,  at  about  the  age  of  forty- 
six.  The  Poetical  Register  (1719)  noticed  her  as  an  ac- 
complished young  lady,  who  usually  published  under  the 
name  of  Clio.  Steele  "often  expressed  in  several  com- 
panies the  singular  value  and  esteem"  he  had  for  her 
"extraordinary  wit."''^     To   Clio  herself  it  was  a  hated 

92  Of  the  surprising  pictures  in  Gideon,  take  for  example  this  from 
Book  III  (it  is  not  quoted  by  Dyer) — a  description  of  the  lion: 
' '  High  0  'er  his  back  his  tail  turned  upward  waved ; 


Eed  were  his  eyes  and  sparkled  on  the  plain." 
But  the  picture  of  a  ram  in  Dyer 's  Fleece  is  as  surprising  as  anything 
in  Gideon: 

"Long  swings  his  slender  tail;  his  front  is  fenced 

With  horns  Ammonian,  circulating  twice 

Around  each  open  ear,  like  those  fair  scrolls 

That  grace  the  columns  of  the  Ionic  dome." 
And  Thomson's  pillar   (in  Liberty)   can  stand  up  with  the  lion  and 
the  ram: 

"First  unadorned 

And  nobly  plain,  the  manly  Doric  rose; 

The  Ionic  then,  with  decent  matron  grace, 

Her  airy  pillar  heaved. ' ' 
93  Dedication  of  her  Epistles  of  Clio  and  Streplwii,  1720.    A  2d  and 
3d  edition  of  these  Epistles — conventional  couplets  expressing  the  con- 
ventional fears  and  hopes  of  lovers^ — were  published  in  1729  and  1732. 


niLL  AND   niS   CIRCLE   ABOUT   1725  189 

thought  that  she  was  born  a  woman,  "for  household  cares 
and  empty  trifles  meant,"  and  she  aspired  to  stretch  her 
mind  beyond  her  sex, — an  ill-advised  attempt  in  that  age 
and  likely  to  cause  scandal.*^*  Enough  notoriety  finally 
attached  to  the  name  of  Clio  to  induce  Mallet  to  rechristen 
her  "Mira.'"'^  Among  her  friends  she  counted  Dyer, 
Mallet,  Savage,  Thomson,  Bond,  Victor,  Mitchell,  and  Hill. 
Dyer  painted  her  portrait,  on  which  Hill  and  Savage  wrote 
verses,  compact  about  equally  of  flattery  of  the  artist's 
skill  and  the  lady 's  charms.  Dyer 's  Country  Walk  is  filled 
with  longing  for  Clio;  and  as  a  shepherd  (in  the  Inquiry) 
he  asks  his  sheep  if  they  have  met  with  his  love  on  moun- 
tain or  in  valley.  Clio  encourages  him  to  write  on,  and 
praises  his  portrait  of  her  as  much  as  modesty  will  permit. 
She  and  Savage  condole  with  each  other  on  their  mis- 
fortunes— her's  including  a  murdered  father  and  innumer- 
able lost  friends,  torn  from  her  by  death  or  absence.  And 
she  extends  an  invitation  to  Savage  to  come  down  from  the 
stars  and  visit  her  in  the  humble  vale  where  she  communes 
with  Nature.  Mallet  suffers  torments  in  her  absence,  and 
describes  her  in  terms  that  quite  ravished  Thomson,  re- 
cently admitted  into  her  circle. 

But  her  most  accomplished  and  Platonic  lover  was  Hill. 

Bond  was  Streplion.  (See  London  Evening  Post,  Dec.  5,  1728.)  Mrs. 
Hajwood  (Memoirs  of  a  Certain  Island  adjacent  to  the  Kingdom  of 
Utopia,  1725)  tells  of  the  intrigue  of  the  Countess  of  Macclesfield  and 
Earl  Rivers,  and  of  Savage's  birth,  in  the  History  of  Masonia,  Count 
Marville  and  Count  Eiverius  (p.  157  f .) .  Mrs.  Haywood  praises  Savage 
generously,  but  expresses  unmitigated  contempt  for  a  certain  "vile 
woman,"  a  pretender  to  the  art  of  poetry,  who  has  betrayed  Savage 
by  her  wiles.  Mr.  George  Whieher,  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  who 
is  engaged  on  a  study  of  Mrs.  Haywood,  thinks  this  siren  may  be 
"Clio."     I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Whieher  for  this  reference. 

94  See  a  poem  to  Dyer,  in  the  Miscellany. 

95  According  to  an  attack  on  Savage  in  the  British  Journal,  Septem- 
ber 24,  1726,  quoted  in  Philobiblon  Soc.  Miscellanies,  IV,  12. 


190  AARON    HILL 

Scenes  such  as  "we  read  in  our  youthful  days,  in  Sir 
Philip  Sidney's  Pastoral  Romance,"  came  to  Victor's  mind, 
when  he  recalled  twenty  years  later  the  hours  he  had  spent 
with  Hill,  "that  elegant  lover,"  and  his  "charming  Clio."*^ 
No  attempt  to  reconstruct  this  Arcadia  can  hope  to  be  suc- 
cessful; Hill's  letters  and  poems  to  Clio  merely  afford  a 
few  glimpses.  One  letter  attributes  the  laziness  she  com- 
plains of  feeling  to  a  temporary  absence  of  her  soul,  which 
is  abroad,  inspiring  his  and  "inflaming  it  with  a  thousand 
ideas"  of  her  loveliness.^'^  Another  encloses  verses,  written 
after  seeing  her  at  a  performance  of  Julius  Caesar;  he 
found  himself  sorely  perplexed  to  choose  between  the  at- 
tractions of  the  bloody  stage  and  of  this  vision  of  Clio : 

"  Round  her  pleased  mouth  impatient  Cupids  throng, 
To  snatch  th'inspiring  music  from  her  tongue; 
Thick,  through  her  sparkling  eyes,  break  unconfined, 
The  winged  ideas  of  her  crowded  mind; 
A  mind !  that  burning  with  inferior  glow. 
Does  her  whole  form  with  lustre  overflow."  ^^ 

His  perplexity  is  not  surprising.  Other  letters  indicate  an 
interchange  of  verses  and  of  invitations  to  call.  The 
Miscellany  contained  the  poem.  To  Mr.  Dyer,  on  his  at- 
tempting Clio's  Picture.  If  the  task  is  possible  to  anyone, 
it  is  to  Dyer ;  but  it  is  rather  difficult  for  a  painter 

"  Strong  to  your  burning  circle  to  confine 
That  awe-mixed  sweetness  and  that  air  di\dne ! 
That  sparkling  soul  which  lightens  from  within ! 
And  breaks  in  unspoke  meanings  through  her  skin." 

Of  other  poems,  undoubtedly  written  about  this  time,  one 
is  on  her  birthday ;"''  another  tells  how,  before  he  met  her, 

96  Victor's  Letters,  II,  66  (letter  to  Dyer). 

97  Hill's  Worl's,  II,  180.     Dated  1721  in  the  1754  ed. 

98  Dramatic  Worls,  II,  389. 

99  Worl'S,  III,  41. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE   ABOUT    1725  191 

his  imagination,  now  confined  to  one  theme,  flew  restlessly 
about  the  universe,  knowing  every  moment  some  fresh 
labor ;  if  he  could  only  live  till  the  death  of  Clio 's  fame,  he 
could  hope  to  display  all  the  unborn  deeds  within  him ; 

"  But,  as  it  is,  our  fleeting  sands  so  fast 
Ebb  to  their  end  and  lead  us  to  decay, 
That  ere  we  learn  to  see,  our  daylight's  past, 
And  like  a  melting  mist,  life  shrinks  away."  ^*"' 

Other  love  songs  perhaps  refer  to  Clio,  without  specifically 
mentioning  her,"^ 

After  her  death.  Hill  wrote  to  Savage:  "Poor  C---o! 
It  is  long  since  I  met  with  an  affliction  more  sensible  than 
the  information  you  sent  me  concerning  her !  If  half  what 
her  enemies  have  said  of  her  is  true,  she  was  a  proof  that 
vanity  overcomes  nature  in  women,  which  it  could  never  yet 
do  in  men:  for  desire  of  glory  wants  power  to  expel  the 
pusillanimity  natural  to  some  ambitious  princes  and  gen- 
erals; while  in  that  amiable  pursuer  of  conquests  it  pre- 
vailed, not  only  against  the  finest  reflection,  but  impelled  an 
assumed  lightness  over  every  constitutional  modesty.  "^"^ 
The  tone  of  the  comment  suggests  that  Hill  had  seen  little 
of  her  for  some  years.  Probably  his  restless  imagination 
could  not  long  be  confined  to  the  one  theme  of  a  Platonic 

100  Works,  III,  6. 

101  Miranda,  "the  consort  of  A.  Hill,"  whose  poems,  according  to 
Savage,  exhibit  the  combined  charms  of  Clio 's  and  Lady  M.  W.  Mon- 
tagu's,  joined  her  husband  in  praising  Clio.  Miranda  writes  on  sleep, 
and  Clio  responds;  Miranda  replies  to  that — surely  in  inspiring  a 
poem  by  Clio,  "never  Muse  so  profitably  slept"  as  hers.  But  both 
here  and  in  a  poem  to  ' '  Aurelia, ' '  whom  she  advises  to  be  content 
with  meeting  Hillarius  only  in  his  poems,  Miranda  proclaims  unequiv- 
ocally her  right  to  Hillarius:  "If  on  earth  there  can  perfection  be. 
Heaven,  which  bestowed  Hillarius,  gave  it  me."  She  accepted  Clio, 
but  refused  to  admit  any  of  the  Aurelias  and  Evandras  who  figure  in 
the  Miscellany. 

102  June  23,  1736.     Worls,  I,  338. 


192  AAEON    HILL 

friendship,  though  it  was  quite  in  accord  with  his  elaborate- 
ness to  work  up  such  a  theme  for  a  time  with  great  zest — 
after  whatever  flourish  you  will. 

The  flourishes  are  astonishing, — those  of  the  others  in 
praise  of  Hill,  as  well  as  Hill's  in  praise  of  Clio  and  all  the 
rest.  Still,  flattery  of  Hill  was  at  least  based  on  sincere 
gratitude  for  what  he  had  done,  and  on  appreciation  of  his 
generous  nature.  Its  absurd  exaggeration  is  to  be  ex- 
plained partly  by  the  fact  that  Hill,  with  his  genius  for 
extravagant  expression,  set  the  pace  in  praise  of  his  friends ; 
and  they,  younger  and  less  known,  could  not  risk  the  dis- 
courtesy of  falling  behind.  This  reasonable  suggestion  was 
made  in  apology  for  the  tone  of  exaggeration  in  Thomson's 
letters  to  Hill."^  But  it  must  be  remembered,  too,  that 
Thomson  first  saw  Hill  through  the  eyes  of  Savage  and 
Mallet,  when  both  were  very  grateful  for  Hill's  encourage- 
ment, and  the  sight  could  not  have  been  other  than 
impressive.^"* 

It  is  natural  that  Mallet  should  have  introduced  his 
fellow-countryman  to  Hill ;  natural,  too,  that  a  young  poet, 
coming  to  London  in  search  of  fame,  should  seek  to  know 
the  critic  who  had  publicly  proclaimed  him,  on  the  strength 
of  an  early  poem,  ' '  a  prodigious  young  man. ' '  This  notice 
of  Thomson,  inspired  by  his  "masterly"  Fragment  of  a 
Poem  on  the  Works  and  Wonders  of  Almighty  Power,  had 
appeared  in  the  same  number  of  the  Plain  Dealer  that  pub- 
lished Mallet's  modest  confession  of  the  authorship  of  the 
ballad.^°^     The  "prodigious  young  man"  arrived  in  London 

103  G.  C.  Macaulay:  Thomson,  19. 

104  Thomson  knew  Savage  by  July,  1725,  as  lie  mentions  him  in 
writing  to  Mallet. 

105  No.  46,  August  28,  1724.  The  poem  was  reprinted,  as  given  by 
Thomson  to  Hill,  by  Allan  Cunningham  (see  Aldine  ed.  of  Thomson's 
works,  II,  161).  M.  Morel  does  not  mention  the  Plain  Dealer  notice 
in  his  biography  of  Thomson. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  193 

some  six  months  later  (February,  1725),  and  through 
Mallet  and  Duncan  Forbes  was  probably  introduced  to 
various  literary  people  even  before  his  Winter  was  pub- 
lished in  March,  1726.  The  interest  centres,  of  course, 
about  the  fortunes  of  the  poem.  Victor  states  that  both  he 
and  his  agreeable  friend,  Mr.  Hill,  saw  and  admired  it  in 
MS.,  and  adds,  "I  remember  Mr.  Malloch  .  .  .  and  I  walked 
one  November  day  to  all  the  booksellers  in  the  Strand  and 
Fleet  Street  to  sell  the  copy  of  this  poem,  and  at  last  could 
only  fix  with  Mr.  Millar,  who  then  lived  in  a  little  shop  in 
Fleet  Street.  "^^*'  This  account,  inaccurate  as  it  has  been 
proved  in  several  details  (Victor  was  writing  after  the  lapse 
of  some  years), ^°"  is  no  doubt  substantially  true.  INlallet 
would  be  likely  to  show  the  poem  to  Hill  as  well  as  to 
Victor.  Various  people  have  been  mentioned  as  noticing 
the  poem  while  it  lay  neglected  at  the  bookseller's  ;^°^  but 
the  one  person  who  certainly  took  up  the  cause  of  Thomson 
with  ardor,  and  the  only  one  for  whose  championship  we 
have  Thomson's  testimony,  was  Hill. 

Hill  wrote  enthusiastically  to  Mallet  about  the  poem; 
Thomson  saw  the  letter;  and  thereupon,  according  to  Dr. 
Johnson,  "courted  Hill  with  every  expression  of  servile 
adulation.  "^°^  The  phrase  is  unkind,  though  such  flights 
as  these  might  suggest  it:"°  "Though  I  cannot  boast  the 
honor  and  happiness  of  your  acquaintance,  and  ought  with 
the  utmost  deference  and  veneration  to  approach  so 
supreme  a  genius,  yet  my  full  heart  is  not  to  be  repressed 
by  formalities.  ...  I  will  not  affect  a  moderate  joy  at  your 

106  Original  Letters,  III,  27. 

10^  Such  as  the  name  of  the  bookseller — Millan,  not  Millar. 

108  Shiels  names  "Whately;  Johnson,  Whatly;  "Warton,  Spence;  Good- 
hugh,  Andrew  Mitchell;  Dalloway,  Bundle. 

109  Lives,  III,  284. 

110  Thomson  to  Hill,  April  5,  1726.  All  the  earlier  letters  of 
Thomson  to  Hill  were  published  in  the  Collection  of  1751. 

14 


194  AARON    HILL 

approbation,  your  praise ;  it  pleases,  it  delights,  it  ravishes 
me !  .  .  .  That  great  mind,  and  transcendent  humanity,  that 
appear  in  the  testimony  you  have  been  pleased  to  give  my 
first  attempt,  would  have  utterly  confounded  me,  if  I  had 
not  been  prepared  for  such  an  entertainment  by  your  well- 
known  character;  which  the  voice  of  fame  and  your  own 
masterly  writings  loudly  proclaim.  ...  If  I  wrote  all  that 
admiration  of  your  perfections  and  my  gratitude  dictate,  I 
should  never  have  done;  but,  lest  I  tire  you,  I'll  for  the 
present  rather  put  a  violence  on  myself.  "^^^ 

Hill's  reply  evidently  overflowed  with  an  expansive 
benevolence  that  led  Thomson  in  his  next  letter  to  discourse 
on  "social  love"  as  contrasted  with  self-love.  Hill  being  a 
shining  example  of  the  former :  ' '  Your  writings,  while  they 
glow  with  innumerable  instances  of  strong  thinking  and 
sublime  imagination,  are  peculiarly  marked  with  this  beau- 
tiful benevolence  of  mind.  ...  I  am  ravished  with  the  hope 
you  give  me  of  your  nearer  acquaintance."""  This  hope 
was  gratified  on  April  26,  and  after  reflecting  over  night 
on  the  delights  of  the  visit,  Thomson  wrote  on  the  "down- 
right inspiration"  of  Hill's  society:  "There  is,  in  your 
conversation,  such  a  beauty,  truth,  force,  and  elegance  of 
thought  and  expression;  such  animated  fine  sense,  and 
chastised  fancy;  so  much  dignity  and  condescension,  sub- 
in  Thomson's  praise  of  Mallet  is  quite  as  excessive  as  Hill's  of 
Thomson  or  Thomson's  of  Hill.  In  a  letter  to  Mallet  of  August  11, 
1726,  he  declares  two  lines  of  the  Excursion  equal  to  any  Shakespeare 
ever  wrote  on  the  subject;  and  in  September  he  was  convinced  that 
Mallet  must  converse  with  the  sages  and  heroes  of  antiquity:  "You 
think  like  them  too,  your  bosom  swells  with  the  same  divine  ambition, 
and  would  if  in  the  same  circumstances  display  the  same  heroic 
virtues,  that  lie  all  glowing  at  your  heart."  Perhaps  it  was  because 
Mallet  was  never  placed  in  those  favoring  circumstances  that  he  dis- 
played such  unheroic  meanness  in  the  treatment  of  the  memory  of 
his  friend  Pope. 

112  Letter  of  April  18. 


niLL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  195 

limity,  and  sweetness ;  in  a  word,  such  a  variety  of  entertain- 
ment and  instruction,  as  is  beyond  all  admiration." 
Clearly  Hill  the  conversationalist  almost  equalled  in  varied 
accomplishment  Hill  the  essayist.  ''To  descend  from  your 
company,"  he  goes  on,  "and  mingle  with  the  herd  of  man- 
kind, is  like  Nebuchadnezzar's  descending  from  a  throne  to 
graze  with  the  beasts  of  the  field."  Rather  than  join 
Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  fields,  Thomson  feasts  on  the 
memory  of  the  rich  entertainment ;  ' '  that  little  seraph,  the 
young  Urania,"  especially  charmed  him, — "her  elegant 
turn  of  mind :  her  innocence  and  goodness  in  the  choice  of 
her  subjects;  her  fancy,  judgment,  and  ambition,  above  her 
years  .  .  .  are  most  agreeably  surprising. ' '  The  little  seraph 
must  have  already  begun  to  compose — a  habit  that  clung  to 
her  all  her  life. 

The  dedication  of  Winter  to  Sir  Spencer  Compton, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  had  brought  no  response 
to  prove  his  possession  of  the  "fine  discernment"  attributed 
to  him,  along  with  all  other  noble  qualities,  by  Mallet,  the 
author  of  the  eulogy.  This  neglect  excited  Hill  to  attack 
patrons  in  a  poem,  which  he  sent  to  Thomson  and  also  to 
several  newspapers.^^^  Shun  patrons,  he  advises  Thomson, 
and  stand  alone ;  very  few  peers  are  judges  of  poetic  merit  ■ 

"  On  verse  like  yours  no  smiles  from  power  expect, 
Born  with  a  worth  that  doomed  yon  to  neglect." 

He  who 

"  stoops  safe  beneath  a  patron's  shade, 
Shines  Hke  the  moon,  but  by  a  borrowed  aid. 
Truth  should,  unbiassed,  free  and  open  steer." 

Thomson  expressed  delight  at  the  praise  and  wonder  at  the 
fineness  of  the  satire, — "marked  with  exalted  sentiment  and 
generous  contempt.""*    The  hitherto  undiscerning  Speaker 

113  Johnson 's  Lives,  III,  285. 

114  May  24,  1726. 


196  AARON   HILL 

was  also  moved,  partly  by  the  publicity,  partly  by  the  grow- 
ing popularity  of  Winter,  the  first  edition  of  which  was 
now  exhausted;  and  he  kindly  expressed  a  willingness  to 
see  the  poet.  "He  received  me,"  wrote  Thomson  to  Hill, 
' '  in  what  they  commonly  call  a  civil  manner,  asked  me  some 
commonplace  questions,  and  made  me  a  present  of  twenty 
guineas.""^ 

In  the  same  letter  that  recorded  the  Speaker 's  generosity, 
Thomson  enclosed,  for  Hill's  correction,  some  verses,  by 
Mallet,  to  be  published  in  the  second  edition  of  Winter;  in 
his  opinion,  "their  only  glorious  fault,  if  they  have  any,  is 
an  excess  of  that  beautiful  benevolence  of  mind,  which, 
among  a  thousand  things,  make  you  and  him  so  greatly 
amiable,"  It  was  pertinent  to  enlarge  on  the  benevolence 
and  amiability  of  his  friends — he  needed  their  help  to 
extricate  himself  from  an  awkward  situation.  He  had 
planned  to  print  in  the  new  edition  Hill's  poem  as  well  as 
Mallet's,  with  their  fine  satire  on  negligent  patrons  and 
their  fervent  praise  of  himself.  But  the  patron  had  just 
signified  his  tardy  pleasure.  How  persuade  the  two  friends 
to  tone  down  the  satire,  of  which  they  were  especially 
proud?  Would  their  benevolence  overcome  their  literary 
vanity?  How  avoid  offense,  either  to  the  friends  who  had 
championed  him  when  the  patron  neglected  him,  or  to  the 
patron  who  had  repented  and  paid? 

He  first  tried  tactful  hints  with  Hill :  ' '  One  of  your  in- 
finite delicacy  will  be  the  best  judge,  whether  it  will  be 
proper  to  print  these  two  inimitable  copies  of  verses  I  have 
from  you  and  Mr.  Mallet,  without  such  little  alterations  as 
shall  clear  Sir  Spencer  of  the  best  satire  I  ever  read.  .  .  . 
Only  this  let  me  add,  should  you  find  that  the  case  required 
some  small  alterations,  and  yet  not  indulge  me  with  them, 

115  June  7,  1726.  The  interview  with  the  Speaker  took  place  on 
June  4. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  197 

I  shall  reckon  what  my  patron  gave  me  a  fatal  present 
'Tis  a  thought  too  shocking  to  be  borne — to  lose  the  ap- 
plause of  the  great  genius  of  the  age,  my  charter  of  fame! 
for — I  will  not  name  it.  But  you  are  too  good  to  plague 
me  so  severely.  I  expect  this  favor  from  Mr.  Mallet  next 
post.""*^  Mallet's  favor  did  not  come  by  the  next  post. 
Mallet  and  Hill  each  held  back  to  see  what  the  other  would 
do ;  and  poor  Thomson,  in  letters  of  mingled  entreaty  and 
compliment,  tried  to  play  them  off  one  against  the  other. 
Finally  Mallet,  declaring  it  out  of  his  power  to  alter  his 
verses,  proposed  suppressing  the  whole  poem.  A  most  un- 
pleasant notion !  Thomson  had  expected  their  names  to 
live  together;  were  twenty  guineas — "twenty  curses  on 
them ! ' ' — to  be  the  price  of  his  fame  ?  Could  he  not  satirize 
something  besides  patrons, — the  avarice,  littleness,  stupidity 
of  men  of  fortune,  or  the  barbarous  contempt  of  poetry,  for 
instance?  "You  might  make  a  glorious  apostrophe  to  the 
drooping  genius  of  Britain — have  Shakespeare  and  Milton 
in  your  eye,  and  invite  to  the  pursuit  of  genuine  poetry." 
Let  him  have  anything  in  his  eye  but  the  Speaker.  And 
yet,  in  a  letter  to  Hill  a  few  days  later,  Thomson  expresses 
himself  as  still  confident  of  receiving  verses  from  Mallet  by 
the  next  post;  surely  Mr.  Hill's  wondrous  generosity  is  not 
going  to  fail  in  this  crisis  ?^^' 

The  upshot  of  the  little  comedy  was  that  the  poems  were 
printed,  with  their  scorn  practically  unmodified.  Hill,  it  is 
true,  made  a  few  trivial  alterations  ;^^^  Mallet,  probably 
none,  for  his  allusions  to  patrons  are  very  pointed.  Thom- 
son had  preferred  a  possible  charge  of  ingratitude  to  the 

116  June  7. 

117  See  letters  of  Thomson  to  Hill  of  June  7,  11,  and  17 ;  and  to 
Mallet,  June  13  (Philobiblon  Society  Miscellanies,  IV,  9  f.). 

118  The  lines  quoted  by  Thomson  in  the  letter  are  slightly  different 
from  those  in  the  2d  ed.  of  Winter.  The  poem  was  reprinted  in  the 
Works,  III,  77. 


198  AARON   HILL 

omission  of  the  "chalereux  eloges"  of  his  friends.^^^  The 
second  edition  contained,  besides  the  poems  of  Hill,  Mallet, 
and  "Mira,"  a  grateful  acknowledgment  of  Hill's  assist- 
ance and  a  warm  tribute  to  his  character,  which  may  be 
regarded  as  closing  this  chapter  of  their  relations/-"  The 
tone  of  the  later  letters  changes :  Thomson,  with  his  reputa- 
tion established,  is  still  prodigal  of  compliments,  but  less 
obsequious ;  he  is  addressing  a  friend,  not  a  deity. 

Hill's  absences  in  Scotland  and  Thomson's  trip  abroad 
(1730-31)  interrupted  the  correspondence  until  November, 
1733,  when  Hill  sent  Zara  to  Thomson,  with  a  request  to 
make  it  known  to  Bubb  Dodington  and  other  influential 
friends.  Thomson's  reply  is  very  cordial  both  to  Zara  and 
its  author,  but  has  the  assured  tone  of  a  man  who  possesses 
some  influence  with  the  Dodingtons  of  the  day.  Not  all 
his  influence,  however,  with  Hill's  added,  could  overcome 
the  public  indifference  to  Liberty,  which  began  to  appear 
in  December,  1734.  In  acknowledging  the  present  of  Part 
I,  even  Hill  hints  at  a  little  dissatisfaction  with  the  style: 
"How  happens  it  that  you  should  change  a  grace  almost 
peculiar  to  yourself,  in  favor  of  transposition  and  ob- 
scurity, by  endeavoring  after  beauties  which,  I  am  sure,  are 
unnecessary  to  your  poem,  and  (I  fear)  unnatural  to  our 
idiom?"  Still,  the  poem  is  "all  soul.''^-^  In  the  28th 
number  of  the  Prompter,^-^  Hill  quotes  a  passage  from 
Part  II,  with  hearty  praise  of  its  harmony  and  sentiment. 
But  the  much-needed  puff  apparently  had  little  effect  on  a 

110  L.  Morel:  Thomson,  61. 

120  ' '  His  favors  are  the  very  smiles  of  humanity,  graceful  and  easy, 
flowing  from  and  to  the  heart.  This  agreeable  train  of  •  thought 
awakens  naturally  in  my  mind  all  the  other  parts  of  his  great  and 
amiable  character,  which  I  know  not  well  how  to  quit,  and  yet  dare 
not  here  pursue." 

121  January  17,  1735.     Worls,  I,  210. 

122  February  14,  1735. 


HILL   AND    HIS    CIRCLE    ABOUT    1725  199 

sale  that  proceeded  more  and  more  slowly  as  each  new  part 
appeared, — so  slowly,  in  fact,  that  in  May  of  the  follow- 
ing year  Thomson  thought  of  annulling  the  bargain  with 
his  bookseller,  who  would  else  be  a  considerable  loser,  and 
getting  out  a  new  edition  later.^-^ 

Naturally,  the  neglect  of  his  work  intensified  his  gloomy 
%'iews  as  to  the  general  corruption  of  the  age.  He  expects 
to  see  "all  poetry  reduced  to  magazine  miscellanies,  all 
plays  to  mummery  entertainments,  and,  in  short,  all  learning 
absorbed  into  the  sink  of  purely  scurrilous  newspapers."^-* 
A  wrong  use  of  the  gifts  of  commerce  turns  wealth  to 
private  jobs,  not  public  works;  to  profitable,  not  fine  arts; 
to  gain,  not  glory.^-^  Stage  affairs  are  quite  hopeless — he 
never  expects  to  see  at  the  head  of  the  theatres  any  gentle- 
man of  equal  judgment,  genius,  taste,  and  generosity  to  the 
author  of  the  Prompters}-^  To  Hill  this  was  not  at  the 
time  a  purely  visionary  prospect :  both  Zara  and  the 
Prompter  had  achieved  more  success  than  Liberty,  and  he 
had  in  September  a  scheme  for  getting  the  Prince  in- 
terested in  a  new  theatre.  So  he  cannot  quite  agree  with 
Thomson  that  the  root  of  the  stage  evil  is  too  deep  to  be 
plucked  up.  In  regard  to  affairs  in  general,  however,  he 
is  entirely  in  accord  with  him :  commerce  and  wealth  have 
corrupted  the  English ;  one  cannot  find  a  people  long  ' '  re- 
taining public  virtue  and  extended  commerce."  Liberty 
is  to  Hill  "the  dying  effort  of  despairing  and  indignant 
virtue."^-'  Thomson  has  some  hope  in  a  copyright  to  pro- 
tect arts  and  learning ;  Hill  is  afraid  that  would  do  no  good 

123  Thomson  to  Hill,  May  11,  1736.     Col.  of  1751. 

124  Thomson  to  Hill,  August  23,  1735. 

125  May  11,  1736. 

126  August  23,  1735. 

127  Hill  to  Thomson,  February  17,  1736.     JVorls,  I,  221. 


200  AARON    HILL 

unless  the  public  is  first  educated.^-®  And  so  they  end, 
gloomily  shaking  their  heads. 

Hill's  last  letter  to  Thomson  again  hints  at  some  degree 
of  obscurity  in  Liberty,  arising  from  the  difficulty  of  "re- 
ducing infinity  into  distinction";  and  he  even  criticizes  cer- 
tain lines.  But  Thomson  had  asked  for  criticism,  and  it  is 
not  likely  that  he  took  offense.  Though  they  did  not  again 
correspond,  they  exchanged  occasional  kind  messages 
through  their  friends ;  in  July,  1744,  Hill  begs  Richardson 
to  return  thanks  to  the  author  of  the  Seasons  for  remember- 
ing an  old  friend,  "who,  though  he  had  still  been  for- 
gotten, would  .  .  .  have  yearly  traced  him  around  with  new 
delight,  from  spring  quite  down  to  winter.  "^-^ 

That  the  record  of  so  many  friendships  should  include  no 
quarrels  is  a  remarkable  testimony  to  Hill's  amiability. 
Possibly  amenities  so  undiversified  form  monotonous  read- 
ing; but  the  reproach  of  that  kind  of  monotony  was  taken 
from  Hill's  life  by  Pope. 

128  Hill  to  Thomson,  May  20,  1736,  and  Thomson  to  Hill,  May  11, 
1736. 

129  Richardson 's  Correspondence,  ed.  Mrs.  Barbauld,  I,  103. 


CHAPTER   VI 

HILL'S    RELATIONS    WITH  POPE 

Bernard  Lintot  the  publisher  was  responsible  for  the 
misunderstanding  that  inaugurated  the  checkered  friend- 
ship of  Pope  and  Hill.  In  1718,  Hill  wrote  The  Northern 
Star,  to  celebrate  the  achievements  of  Peter  the  Great.  To 
select  a  foreign  prince  for  panegyric,  rather  than  a  possibly 
grateful  dignitary  near  at  hand,  was  so  quixotic,  that  the 
poet  feels  called  upon  to  explain  at  length  that  his  duty  is 
to  search  out  and  exalt  virtue  wherever  he  finds  it — even 
if  it  be  outside  his  own  nation : 

"  Perish  that  narrow  pride,  from  custom  grown, 
That  makes  men  blind  to  merits  not  their  own. 
Briton  and  Russian  differ  but  in  name."  ^ 

He  then  pictures  in  glowing  terms  the  Czar's  devotion  to 
both  the  "martial  laurel  and  the  peaceful  bays":  he  has 
civilized  his  own  people,  made  the  Dane,  the  Swede,  and 
the  Turk  tremble,  and  the  lords  of  China  shrink  behind 
their  famous  wall ;  and  his  piercing  eye  may  even  discover 
the  secrets  of  the  Northeast  passage.  At  this  farthest 
North,  the  poet  stops  the  flight  of  his  unbridled  muse,  and, 
in  lines  that  dimly  suggest  the  last  chorus  in  Shelley's 
Hellas,  prophesies  the  final  overthrow  of  Turkey  by  the 
Czar: 

"  Shall  then  at  last,  beneath  propitious  skies, 

The  Cross  triumphant  o'er  the  Crescent  rise? 

Shall  we  behold  earth's  long-sustained  disgrace 

Revenged  in  anns  on  Osman's  haughty  race? 

Shall  Christian  Greece  shake  off  a  captive's  shame, 

1 1st  ecL,  11.  85-87. 

201 


202  AAEON    HILL 

Ajid  look  unblushing  at  her  pagan  fame? 
'Twill  be. — Prophetic  Delphos  claims  her  own ; 
Hails  her  new  Caesars  on  the  Russian  throne. 
Athens  shall  teach  once  more !  once  more  aspire ! 
And  Spartan  breasts  reglow  with  martial  fire ! 
Still,  still,  Byzantium's  brightening  domes  shall  shine, 
And  rear  the  ruined  name  of  Constantine."  - 

Much  as  the  poet  would  like  to  continue  gazing  at  the  star 
of  the  North,  his  eyes  begin  to  ache,  and  he  invites  the  muse 
to  descend.  The  poem  closes  with  a  modest  comparison  of 
the  Czar's  sudden  burst  into  glory  to  the  appearance,  at 
the  Almighty  fiat,  of  order  out  of  chaos. 

Such  is  the  offering  consecrated  to  the  Czar, — one  that 
would  have  been  less  unworthy,  wrote  Hill  later,  "had  my 
genius  allowed  me  fire  but  in  proportion  to  my  inflamed 
intention."^  However  unworthy  of  the  Czar,  the  poem 
was  probably  not,  in  its  author's  opinion,  unworthy  of 
Aaron  Hill.  But  before  publishing  it,  he  decided  to  submit 
it  to  the  judgment  of  Pope,  possibly  hoping  in  this  way 
to  make  his  acquaintance.  Lintot,  whom  he  deputed  to 
take  it  to  Pope,  brought  back  a  report  that  filled  Hill  with 
amazement:  "Mr.  Lintot  lisped  out  that  Mr.  Pope  said 
there  were  several  good  things  in  The  Northern  Star, 
but  it  would  be  taken  for  an  insult  on  the  government,  for, 
though  the  Czar  is  King  George's  ally,  yet  we  are  likely  to 
quarrel  with  Sweden;  and  Muscovy,  whispered  Bernard, 
lies,  he  says,  in  the  north."*  Mr.  Courthope  terms  this  a 
nonsensical  speech^ — though  it  may  be  worth  noting  that 
George  I  and  Peter  were  really  far  from  being  on  friendly 

2  Worl-s,  1753,  III,  195-6. 

3  Preface  to  3d  ed. 

4  Preface  to  1st  ed. 

s  Elwin  and  Courthope 's  Pope,  X,  2,  note.  See  Leeky's  Eighteenth 
Century,  ch.  II,  on  the  situation  between  England  and  Russia.  About 
1715-16,  Charles  of  Sweden  and  Peter  formed  an  alliance,  and  there 
was  danger  that  they  might  take  up  the  cause  of  the  Pretender. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  203 

terms.  But  however  nonsensical,  it  scarcely  justified  the 
passion  into  which  Hill  fell,  and  which  informs  the 
"Preface  to  Mr.  Pope"  that  appeared  with  the  first  edition 
of  The  Northern  Star. 

After  quoting  "honest  Bernard's"  statement.  Hill  goes 
on  to  attack  Pope  chiefly  by  the  scornful  application  to  him 
of  lines  in  his  own  Essay  on  Criticism.  ' '  'Tis  possible  that 
under  this  disguise  of  opinion,  your  excess  of  good-breeding 
may  have  concealed  your  dislike  of  the  performance ' ' ;  yet 
why  not  avow  the  dislike?  "Be  niggard  of  advice  on  no 
pretence."     The  lines  really  applicable  to  the  case  may  be: 

"  All  seems  infected  that  th'infected  spy, 
As  all  looks  yellow  to  the  jaundiced  eye." 

And  Hill  declares,  "My  esteem  for  your  genius  as  a  poet 
is  so  very  considerable  that  it  is  hardly  exceeded  by  my 
contempt  of  your  vanity."  Then  leaving  Pope  for  the 
moment,  he  passes  to  characteristic  reflections — arising,  of 
course,  out  of  the  supposed  criticism  of  his  subject — upon  a 
narrow  and  restricted  view  of  human  affairs.  Suppose  the 
Czar  were  our  enemy;  "are  his  merits  less  shining?  Does 
his  glory  depend  on  his  friendship  for  Britain?  Con- 
temptible meanness  of  thought!  .  .  .  Next  to  deserving  well 
ourselves,  it  is  the  noblest  perfection  of  Nature  to  admire 
and  applaud  those  who  do  so."  This  narrowness  of  mind 
he  attributes  in  large  measure  to  the  flatteries  of  poets, 
"who  generally  writing  for  a  precarious  subsistence  can 
no  w^ay  so  easily  succeed  as  by  falling  in  with  the  weakness 
and  bias  of  men's  natures.  ...  A  mere  poet,  that  is  to  say, 
a  wretch  who  has  nothing  but  the  jingle  in  his  brains  to 
ring  chimes  to  his  vanity,  and  whose  whole  trade  is  rhyme- 
jobbing, — such  a  creature  is  certainly  the  most  worthless 
incumbrance  of  his  country."  General  as  this  is,  it  was 
undoubtedly  levelled  at  Pope,  to  whom  the  preface  returns 
for  a  final  petulant  fling:  "If,  after  all,  it  was  not  the 


204  AARON    HILL 

subject,  but  the  poem,  that  found  no  favor  in  his  eyes,  I 
will  take  upon  me  to  assure  him,  it  sues  not  for  the  bless- 
ing ;  let  him  take  it  as  ill  as  he  pleases,  I  dare  at  least  under- 
take, it  shall  easily  defend  itself  against  any  attack  of  his 
making;  which  pray,  Sir,  inform  him,  since  you  are  his 
greatest  admirer." 

Of  this  outburst  Pope  took  no  notice,  and  Hill  must  have 
■grown  somewhat  ashamed  of  it;  for  in  1720  he  sent  Pope 
another  poem — The  Creation — accompanied  by  an  apology.® 
Pope,  in  his  acknowledgment,'^  declares  himself  pleased  at 
the  opportunity  the  gift  offers  of  assuring  Hill  that  he 
neither  did,  nor  intended  doing,  him  the  least  injury;  he 
had  been  in  so  great  a  hurry  at  the  time  Lintot  showed  him 
the  poem  that  he  postponed  a  careful  reading  for  a  day  or 
two;  but  the  parts  he  did  glance  over  he  liked,  and  told 
Lintot  so.  * '  I  think  it  incumbent  on  any  well-meaning  man 
to  acquit  himself  of  an  illgrounded  suspicion  in  another, 
who  perhaps  means  equally  well,  and  is  only  too  credulous. 
I  am  sincerely  so  far  from  resenting  this  mistake  that  I  am 
more  displeased  at  your  thinking  it  necessary  to  treat  me 
so  much  in  a  style  of  compliment  as  you  do  in  your  letter." 
With  commendable  caution,  he  refrains  from  comment  on 
the  new  poem,  except  to  say,  "I  am  sure  the  person  who  is 
capable  of  writing  it  can  need  no  man  to  judge  it," — a  re- 
mark susceptible  of  various  interpretations. 

So  far.  Pope  clearly  had  the  advantage.  On  no  provoca- 
tion but  a  reported  remark,  too  absurd  on  its  face  to  be 
authentic,  he  had  been  attacked  publicly  and  intemper- 
ately,  and  had  kept  silent,  until  his  enemy  calmed  down 
and  made  overtures,  to  which  he  responded  pleasantly.  It 
was  wise  treatment  for  a  man  of  Hill's  temperament, — 
placated  as  easily  as  he  was  aroused,  and  quick  to  appre- 

6  Quoted  in  part  in  Elwin  ami  Conrthope's  Tope,  X,  3. 

7  Pope  to  Hill,  March  2  (1720).    Misdated  1731,  in  the  Col.  of  1751. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  205 

ciate  even  the  appearance  of  sincerity.  He  now  replied 
fervently  :^  he  is  under  the  greatest  confusion  at  realizing 
the  crime  he  has  been  guilty  of ;  he  might  have  known  from 
Pope's  writings  the  extent  of  his  soul;  to  call  his  guilt 
credulity  is  too  generous — "it  was  a  passionate  and  most 
unjustifiable  levity" ;  it  was  indeed  little  less  than  a  miracle 
that  he  attempted  to  offend  one  whose  mind  at  least  had 
been  his  "intimate  acquaintance,  and  regarded  w^ith  a  kind 
of  partial  tenderness";  Pope  has  punished  his  injustice 
with  double  sharpness  by  his  manner  of  receiving  it.  Not 
content  with  writing  this  humble  apology,  Hill  made  it 
public  by  printing  it  in  another  preface  to  Pope,  in  The  ^ 
Creation;  and  he  added  certain  compliments:  "I  look  up 
to  you  with  extraordinary  comfort,  as  to  a  new  constella- 
tion breaking  out  upon  our  world  with  equal  heat  and 
brightness,  and  cross-spangling,  as  it  were,  the  whole 
heaven  of  wit  with  your  Milky  "Way  of  genius. '  '^  ^- 

An  incident  growing  out  of  the  publication  of  The 
Northern  Star  forms  the  subject  of  the  next  letter,  from 
Pope,  six  years  later.  A  second  edition  of  the  poem  ap- 
peared in  1724,  with  a  Latin  translation  by  Hill's  brother 
Gilbert;  and  through  this  Latin  version,  the  poem  "with- 
out any  design  or  application  of  the  author  .  .  .  reached 
the  hands  of  that  truly  great  and  imperial  foreign  sovereign 
in  whose  praise  it  was  composed.  "^°  The  death  of  the 
Czar  in  March,  1725,  was  the  signal  for  a  third  edition, 
previously  announced  in  the  Plain  Dealer,^'^  where  several 

8  Elwin  and  Courthope  's  Pope,  X,  3. 

^  Dr.  George  Sewell,  M.D.,  who  favored  Hill  with  some  criticism  of 
the  poem  (Hill's  Works,  II,  406  f.),  objected  to  a  constellation  as 
large  as  the  Milky  Way;  but  Hill  defends  the  phrase  vehemently — 
he  can  make  a  new  constellation  of  his  own  as  large  as  he  chooses 
(Worls,  1,  y  f.). 

10  Plain  Dealer,  preface  to  1734  ed.  Bond  there  says  that  he  sug- 
gested the  translation. 

11  No.  106. 


206  AARON    HILL 

papers  had  recently  appeared,  defending  the  Czar's  treat- 
ment of  his  son  and  discussing  the  possible  danger  of  a  war 
with  Russia.^^  Shortly  after,  Hill  was  "surprised  by  the 
condescension  of  a  compliment  from  the  Empress,  his  relict 
and  immediate  successor,"  in  the  form  of  a  gold  medal,^^ 
sent  by  the  Czar's  order.^*  Papers  relating  to  him  were 
also  promised  to  Hill,  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  biography ; 
and  some  of  them  actually  arrived :  "  I  have, ' '  he  wrote  to 
Pope  years  later,^^  "papers  in  my  hands,  which  throw  the 
noblest  and  most  beautiful  colors  on  a  circumstance  which 
the  malice  of  some  great  courts  in  Europe  has  taken  pains 
to  misrepresent  and  to  blacken.  The  shortened  reign  of  the 
lady  deprived  me  of  great  part  of  a  treasure,  which  I  see, 
by  what  came  to  my  hands,  had  been  vast  and  invaluable. ' ' 
To  these  papers,  which  he  evidently  supposed  were  in 
Hill's  hands,  Pope  refers  in  the  letter  of  1726  r^*'  "What  a 
satisfaction  to  behold  that  perfect  likeness,  without  art, 
affectation,  or  even  the  gloss  of  coloring,  with  a  noble 
neglect  of  all  that  finishing  and  smoothing,  which  any  other 

12N0S.  20,  24,  75. 

13  Preface  to  5th  ed.  of  Northern  Star,  1739. 

14  A  Dr.  J.  Blinman  brought  the  medal,  as  he  reminds  Hill  in  a 
letter  of  May  21,  1736  (Col.  of  1751),  expressing  a  desire  to  renew 
their  acquaintance. 

15  January  15,  1739,  Worlcs,  I,  327  f.  Hill  wished  Pope  to  omit  a 
couplet,  relating  to  the  Czar's  marriage,  in  one  of  his  satires. 

16  In,  the  Col.  of  1751,  where  most  of  the  letters  from  Pope  to  Hill 
were  first  published.  In  Elwin  and  Courthope's  Pope,  where  all  but 
two  of  the  letters  are  reprinted,  half  a  dozen  are  incorrectly  stated  to 
have  appeared  originally  in  1753.  Several  are  wrongly  dated  in  the 
1751  pamphlet,  and  the  dates  corrected  by  Elwin  and  Courthope;  one, 
of  September  29,  1731,  is  not  corrected — it  belongs  to  the  year  1738, 
as  the  references  to  forthcoming  tragedies  by  Thomson  and  Mallet 
clearly  prove;  the  play  returned  to  Hill  is  Caesar,  not  Athelwold.  The 
two  letters  from  Pope,  not  in  Elwin  and  Courthope's  edition,  are 
printed  in  the  Life  prefixed  to  Hill 's  Dramatic  Worlcs;  they  are  dated 
July  15  [1738],  and  January  22  [1739]. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  207 

hand  would  have  been  obliged  to  bestow  on  so  principal  a 
figure !  I  write  this  to  a  man  whose  judgment  I  am  certain 
of .  .  .  .  There  will  be  no  danger  of  your  dressing  this  Mars 
too  finely,  whose  armor  is  not  gold  but  adamant,  and  whose 
style  in  all  probability  is  much  more  strong  than  it  is 
polished,"  The  tone  of  the  entire  letter  suggests  only  the 
most  friendly  relations  between  Hill  and  Pope.  They  had 
exchanged  poems;  Hill  had  evidently  defended  Pope 
against  some  of  the  "silly  attacks"  arising  out  of  the  sur- 
reptitious publication  of  the  letters  to  Cromwell.  ' '  Nor  am 
I  ashamed,"  declares  Pope,  "of  those  weaknesses  of  mine 
which  they  have  exposed  in  print  .  .  .  since  you  have  found 
a  way  to  turn  those  weaknesses  into  virtue,  by  your  partial 
regard  of  them.  ...  I  can  make  you  no  better  return  for 
your  great  compliment  upon  me  .  .  .  but  by  telling  you,  that 
it  is  honor  enough  to  reward  all  my  studies,  to  find  my 
character  and  reputation  is  part  of  the  care  of  that  person 
to  whom  the  fame  and  glory  of  Peter  Alexiowitz  was 
committed. ' ' 

There  is  certainly  nothing  here  to  indicate  that  Pope 
resented  the  references  to  him  in  the  Plain  Dealer  that  Mr. 
Courthope  calls  uncomplimentary.^^  Praise  of  Dennis 
could  scarcely  be  construed  as  an  attack  upon  Pope,  unless 
to  say  of  Dennis  that  he  had  the  soul  to  know  how  far 
popularity  was  from  being  a  mark  of  living  merit  is  tanta- 
mount to  a  statement  that  Pope's  popularity  proves  lack 
of  merit.^^  Though  no.  116  complains  of  the  omission  of 
Shakespeare's  poems  from  Pope's  six-volume  edition,  no. 
16  and  no.  68  contain  praise  enough  of  his  genius  to  satisfy 
the  vanity  of  any  poet.  One  of  the  most  moderate  passages 
declares,  "The  praise  of  Mr.  Pope  will  be  a  theme  for  wit 
and  learning  when  all  the  dukes,  his  patrons,  shall  be  lost 
in  the  dust  that  covers  them." 

i^Elwin  and  Courthope 's  Pope,  V,  224-226. 
18  Nos.  54  and  82. 


208  AARON   HILL 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  provocation  in  Hill's  paper 
and  the  great  cordiality  of  the  1726  letter,  "A.  H."  ap- 
peared in  chapter  VI  of  the  Bathos  (published  in  March, 
1727-8),  among  the  Flying  Fish — ''writers  who  now  and 
then  rise  upon  their  fins,  and  fly  out  of  the  profund,  but 
their  wings  are  soon  dry,  and  they  drop  down  to  the 
bottom."  Possibly  Pope  had  been  biding  his  time  to  get 
even  for  the  Northern  Star  preface ;  possibly  he  was  so  im- 
pressed with  the  absurdity  of  some  passages  in  Hill 's  works 
that  the  critic  in  him  could  not  refrain  from  putting  Hill 
where  he  belonged ;^^  possibly  Hill's  preoccupation  with 
his  York  Buildings  scheme  pointed  him  out  as  a  compara- 
tively safe  plaything.  But  he  was  not  so  absorbed  in 
Scotch  timber  that  his  sensitive  eye  failed  to  light  upon 
his  initials.  Of  course  he  was  quite  wrong  to  think  them 
his:  Pope  informed  him  later  that  the  letters  were  "set  at 
random,  to  occasion  what  they  did  occasion,  the  suspicion 
of  bad  and  jealous  writers,  of  which  number  I  could  never 
reckon  Mr.  Hill,  and  most  of  whose  names  I  did  not 
know."-"  Unfortunately,  this  ingenuous  explanation  did 
not  accompany  the  initials,  and  Hill,  taking  fire  promptly, 
retaliated  with  a  copy  of  verses  on  Pope  and  an  epigram 
on  Swift,  published  in  the  Daily  Journal  of  April  16. 

When  the  Dunciad  appeared  the  next  month,  H —  was 
present  at  the  diving-match,  striving  with  the  dark  and 
dirty  party-writers  to  see  who  best  loved  dirt  and  could 
fling  filth  about: 

"  H tried  the  next,  but  hardly  snatched  from  sight, 

Instant  buoys  up,  and  rises  into  light; 

He  bears  no  token  of  the  sable  streams. 

And  mounts  far  off  among  the  swans  of  Thames."  -^ 

10  Joseph  Warton  thought  the  Bathos  would  have  been  much  en- 
riched by  Hill's  verse  (Essay  on  Pope,  II,  251). 

20  January  26,  1731.     Col.  of  1751. 

21  Book  II,  273  f. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  209 

In  the  next  edition  (1729),  two  asterisks  replaced  the 
"  H  -  -  -, "  and  the  following  note  was  added :"  ' '  This  is  an 
instance  of  the  tenderness  of  our  author.  The  person  here 
intended  writ  an  angry  preface  against  him,  founded  on  a 
mistake,  which  he  afterwards  honorably  acknowledged  in 
another  printed  preface.  Since  when  he  fell  under  a 
second  mistake,  and  abused  both  him  and  his  friend.  He 
is  a  writer  of  genius  and  spirit,  though  in  his  youth  he 
was  guilty  of  some  pieces  bordering  upon  bombast.  Our 
poet  here  gives  him  a  panegyric  instead  of  a  satire,  being 
edified  beyond  measure  by  the  only  instance  he  ever  met 
with  in  his  life  of  one  who  was  much  a  poet  confessing 
himself  in  an  error ;  and  has  suppressed  his  name  as  think- 
ing him  capable  of  a  second  repentance.  "^^ 

Hill  was  not  much  impressed  with  the  tenderness  of  the 
reference, — the  briefest  connection  with  the  filth  of  that 
diving-match  he  regarded,  quite  rightly,  as  an  insult;  and 
he  burst  again  into  poetry.  In  1730  appeared  "The 
Progress  of  Wii:  a  Caveat.  For  the  use  of  an  eminent 
writer.  By  a  fellow  of  All-Souls.  To  which  is  prefixed 
an  explanatory  discourse  to  the  reader.  By  Gamaliel  Gun- 
son. "  The  discourse,  imitated  from  the  introduction  to  the 
Key  to  the  Rape  of  the  Lock,  makes  some  pretence  at 
anonymity,  and  jokes  heavily  about  the  dark  allusions  in 
the  work.  In  the  poem  itself.  Pope  is  satirized  under  the 
name  of  "tuneful  Alexis,  the  ladies'  plaything  and  the 
muses'  pride,"  who 

22  Book  II,  285. 

23  In  the  edition  of  1735  the  line  appears,  "Then  P- -  essayed";  in 
the  1736  edition,  the  two  asterisks  are  replaced,  and  the  note  on  the 
line  reads:  "A  gentleman  of  genius  and  spirit,  who  wag  secretly  dipt 
in  some  papers  of  this  kind,  on  whom  our  poet  bestows  a  panegyric 
instead  of  a  satire,  as  deserving  to  be  better  employed  than  in  party 
quarrels  and  personal  invective. ' ' 

15 


210  AAEON    HILL 

"  Desiring  and  deserving  others'  praise, 
Poorly  accepts  a  fame  he  ne'er  repays; 
Unborn  to  cherish,  sneakingly  approves, 
And  wants  the  soul  to  spread  the  worth  he  loves." 

Defamed  by  his  irritated  fellow-poets,  and  finally  de- 
posed from  the  top  of  Pindus,  "far-fallen  Alexis"  sleeps, 
and  sees  in  a  dream  the  river  of  life :  the  current  on  the 
left  side — full  of  quicksands  concealed  by  bright,  treacher- 
ous water,  where  gnats,  wasps,  and  flies,  "tinged  with  the 
rainbow's  everchanging  dyes,"  people  the  sunshine — leads 
to  oblivion;  that  on  the  right — broad,  deep,  and  serene, 
dotted  with  green  islands  and  peopled  only  by  swans — leads 
to  fame,  the  home  of  joy  and  peace,  "glory  unenvied  and 
unslandered  gain."  Of  the  voyagers  on  the  river,  some 
seek  the  silent  side — slowly  and  with  difficulty;  others,  in 
their  light  galleys,  shoot  swiftly  to  the  shallows  and  dance 
away  through  the  "shoaly  sunshine,"  until  caught  by 
whirlpool  or  rock.  Among  the  glittering  boats  Alexis  sees 
appear  that  of  a  youth  "saddened  by  sickness  and  o'ercast 
by  spleen,"  but  with  a  living  light  beaming  from  his  eyes, 

"And  from  his  voice  (for  as  he  sailed  he  sung) 
Such  magic  sounds  of  melting  music  sprung, 
That  the  hushed  heaven  all  downward  seemed  to  bend." 

The  Muses  are  his  oarswomen,  the  Graces  trim  his  sails, 
green-eyed  Envy  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat  serves  merely 
as  ballast.  Fancy  spreads  a  starry  mantle  over  him,  and 
Pleasure,  Praise,  and  Beauty  dance  the  moments  away  on 
the  deck.  Thus  guided,  he  reaches  the  green  islands.  But 
the  swans  seeming  tame  company  after  the  joyous  throng 
in  the  shallow  water,  the  youth  steers  his  boat  back,  and 
starts  a  disdainful  war  against  wasps  and  flies,  while  the 
drones  acclaim  him  the  prince  of  fly-catchers.  The  dream- 
ing Alexis,  much  concerned  to  see  the  youth  sweeping  to 
destruction,   beseeches  Fancy    (the   stage-manager  of   the 


hill's  relations  with  pope  211 

vision)    to   call  him   by   name   and   stop   him.     Fancy   is 
amused  that  Alexis  does  not  himself  know  the  name : 

"His  is  a  name  that  dwells  on  ev'ry  mind, 
Tunes  eveiy  tongue,  and  sails  with  ev'ry  wind  " — 

And  Alexis  hears  pronounced  his  own  name — Pope.-'* 

There  is  unquestionably  far  more  praise  than  cavilling 
in  this  production.-^  The  criticism  that  Pope  was  mis- 
directing his  gifts  in  waging  a  war  against  petty  dunces 
still  holds  its  own.  The  preface  to  the  Caveat  speaks  to 
the  same  purpose  with  more  directness:  the  author,  it 
states,  confines  his  satire  to  the  poet's  folly,  not  allowing  it 
to  attack  his  wit,  "which  is  not  weaker,  though  less  lovely, 
when  it  stains  itself  upon  a  dirty  subject,  than  when  it 
ornaments  beauty  itself.  .  .  .  What  pity  that  the  warmest 
of  a  certain  gentleman's  admirers  are  lately  forced  to  con- 
fess, there  are  grossnesses  in  some  of  his  sallies,  obscene 
enough  to  blot  out  any  wit  but  their  author's;  insults  low 
enough  to  become  the  most  vulgar-spirited  among  his 
enemies;  and  malice  animated  enough  to  be  beautiful  in 
any  of  his  friends  but  himself."  In  his  work  are  to  be 
found,  "among  virtues  we  despair  of  equalling,  errors  we 
disdain  to  imitate." 

Until  he  had  fired  this  shot.  Hill  did  not  complain  of 
his  inclusion  in  the  Dunciad.  But  now  he  wrote  a  guile- 
less letter  to  Pope,  sending  him  the  Plain  Dealers  and  a 
poem  written  by  the  promising  Urania  at  the  age  of  eleven, 
under  the  inspiration  of  Pope;  and  after  noting  how 
natural  it  is  for  his  family  to  love  and  admire  him,  he  ob- 
served casually:  "If,  after  this,  I  should  inform  you  that  I 

24  Southey  (Specimens,  II,  141,  1807)  thinks  the  character  of  Pope 
in  this  poem  "particularly  just,  elegant,  and  severe." 

25  ' '  By  the  frequency  of  an'  advertisement  which  I  have  remarked 
in  the  daily  papers,  The  Progress  of  Wit  seems  too  slow  to  be  boasted 
of."    Fog's  Journal,  January  2,  1731. 


212  AARON    HILL 

have  a  gentle  complaint  to  make  to  and  against  you,  con- 
cerning a  paragraph  in  the  notes  of  a  late  edition  of  the 
Dunciad,  I  fear  you  would  think  your  crime  too  little  to 
deserve  the  punishment  of  so  long  a  letter  as  you  are 
doomed  to  on  that  subject.  "^*^ 

Pope  made  haste  to  get  his  excuses  in  ahead  of  the 
threatened  complaint.^^  Without  denying  that  Hill  was 
aimed  at  in  the  note,  he  declares  the  note  itself  to  be  a  com- 
pliment— ''so  it  has  been  thought  by  many,  who  have  asked 
to  whom  that  passage  made  that  oblique  panegyric."  And 
anyway,  why  complain  to  him?  "As  to  the  notes,  I  am 
weary  of  telling  a  great  truth,  w^hich  is,  that  I  am  not  the 
author  of  them."  Mr.  Courthope's  comment  on  this  last 
statement  is  pertinent:  "It  is,  however,  plain  that  Pope 
alone  could  have  written  a  note  stating  what  nobody  else 
could  know, — that  he  had  praised  Hill  in  the  text  because 
he  was  the  solitary  instance  of  a  poet  confessing  himself  in 
error,  and  had  suppressed  his  name  because  he  believed  him 
capable  of  a  second  repentance."-^  After  this  typical 
evasion.  Pope  assumes  the  offensive.  Has  he  not  good 
reason  to  complain  of  the  Caveat  f  It  hurts  him  to  be 
represented  as  wanting  the  worth  to  cherish  and  befriend 
men  of  merit.  ' '  I  am  sorry, ' '  he  goes  on  with  an  admirable 
assumption  of  injured  innocence,  "the  author  of  that  re- 
flection knew  me  no  better,  and  happened  to  be  unknown 
to  those  who  could  have  better  informed  him ;  for  I  have 
the  charity  to  think  he  was  misled  only  by  his  ignorance 
of  me,  and  the  benevolence  to  forgive  the  worst  thing  that 
ever  in  my  opinion  was  said  of  me,  on  that  supposition." 
Although  he  appreciates  Hill's  praise  of  him  as  a  writer, 
"I  only  wish  you  knew  as  well  as  I  do,  how  much  I  j) refer 

20  January  18,  1731,  WorJcs,  1753,  I,  26  f. 

27  Pope  to  Hill,  January  26,  1731.     Col.  of  1751. 

2s  Elvvin  and  Courthope  's  Pope,  X,  9,  note  3. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  213 

qualities  of  the  heart  to  those  of  the  head,  I  vow  to  God, 
I  never  thought  any  great  matters  of  my  poetical  capacity ; 
I  only  thought  it  a  little  better,  comparatively,  than  that  of 
some  very  mean  writers,  who  are  too  proud.  But  I  do 
know  certainly,  my  moral  life  is  superior  to  that  of  most  of 
the  wits  of  these  days.  This  is  a  silly  letter,  but  it  will 
show  you  my  mind  honestly." 

Hill 's  reply — a  letter  better  known  and  more  commended 
than  anything  else  he  ever  wrote-" — showed  him  more  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  the  first  part  of  this  last  statement 
than  of  the  second: 

"  Your  answer  regarding  no  part  of  mine  but  the  conclusion, 
you  must  pardon  my  compliment  to  the  close  of  yours,  in  return ; 
if  I  agree  with  you  that  your  letter  is  weaker  than  one  would 
have  expected.  You  assure  me  that  I  did  not  know  you  so  well 
as  I  might,  had  I  happened  to  be  known  to  others,  who  could 
have  instructed  my  ignorance;  and  I  begin  to  find,  indeed,  that 
I  was  less  acquainted  with  you  than  I  imagined.  But  your  last 
letter  has  enlightened  me,  and  I  can  never  be  in  danger  of  mis- 
taking you  for  the  future. 

"  Your  enemies  have  often  told  me  that  your  spleen  was  at 
least  as  distinguishable  as  your  genius;  and  it  will  be  kinder, 
I  think,  to  believe  them  than  impute  to  rudeness  or  ill  manners 
the  return  you  were  pleased  to  make  for  the  civility,  with  which 
I  addressed  you.  I  will,  therefore,  suppose  you  to  have  been 
peevish  or  in  pain,  while  you  were  writing  me  this  letter ;  and  upon 
that  supposition  shall  endeavor  to  undeceive  you.  If  I  did  not 
love  you  as  a  good  man,  while  I  esteem  you  as  a  good  writer,  I 
should  read  you  without  reflection.  And  it  were  doing  too  much 
honor  to  your  friends,  and  too  little  to  my  own  discernment,  to  go 
to  them  for  a  character  of  your  mind,  which  I  was  able  enough  to 
extract  from  your  writings. 

29  January  28,  1731  (Col.  of  1751).  "Hill  is  always  considered  to 
have  got  a  victory  over  Pope  in  this  excellent  letter."  (Elwin  and 
Courthope's  Pope,  X,  11,  n.  1).  The  remonstrance  is  "both  gentle- 
manly and  reasonable"  (G.  C.  Macaulay:  Thomson,  18). 


214  AAEON    HILL 

"  But  to  imitate  your  love  of  truth,  with  the  frankness  you 
have  taught  me,  I  wish  the  great  qualities  of  your  heart  were  as 
strong  in  you  as  the  good  ones.  You  would  then  have  been 
above  that  emotion  and  bitterness,  wherewith  you  remember 
things  which  want  weight  to  deserve  your  anguish. 

"  Since  you  were  not  the  wTiter  of  the  notes  to  the  Dunciad, 
it  would  be  impertinent  to  trouble  you  with  the  complaint  I 
intended.  I  will  only  observe,  that  the  author  was  in  the  right 
to  believe  me  capable  of  a  second  repentance;  but  I  hope  I  was 
incapable  of  that  second  sin,  which  should  have  been  previous 
to  his  supposition.  If  the  initial  letters  *  A.  H.'  were  not  meant 
to  stand  for  my  name,  yet  they  were  everywhere  read  so,  as  you 
might  have  seen  in  Mist's  Journal  and  other  public  papers;  and 
I  had  shown  Mr.  Pope  an  example  how  reasonable  I  thought  it 
to  clear  a  mistake,  publicly,  which  had  been  publicly  propagated. 
One  note,  among  so  many,  would  have  done  me  this  justice;  and 
the  generosity  of  such  a  proceeding  could  have  left  no  room  for 
that  offensive  '  sneakingly,'  which,  though  perhaps  too  harsh  a 
word,  was  the  properest  a  man  would  choose,  who  was  satirizing 
an  approbation  that  he  had  never  observed  warm  enough  to  declare 
itself  to  the  world,  but  in  defence  of  the  great  or  the  popular. 

"  Again,  if  the  author  of  the  notes  knew  that  '  A.  H.'  related 
not  to  me,  what  reason  had  he  to  allude  to  that  character  as 
mine,  by  observing  that  I  had  published  pieces  bordering  upon 
bombast — a  circumstance  so  independent  of  any  other  j^urpose 
of  the  note,  that  I  should  forget  to  whom  I  am  writing,  if  I 
thought  it  wanted  explanation. 

"  As  to  your  oblique  panegyric,  I  am  not  under  so  blind  an 
attachment  to  the  Goddess  I  was  devoted  to  in  the  Dunciad,  but 
that  I  knew  it  was  a  commendation,  though  a  dirtier  one  than 
I  wished  for;  who  am  neither  fond  of  some  of  the  company  in 
which  I  was  listed,  the  nobler  reward  for  which  I  was  to  become 
a  diver,  the  allegoric  muddiness  in  which  I  was  to  try  my  skill, 
■  nor  the  institutor  of  the  games  you  were  so  kind  to  allow  me  a 
share  in.  Since,  however,  you  could  see  so  clearly  that  I  ought 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  praise,  and  forgive  the  dirt  it  was  mixed 
with,  I  am  sorry,  it  seemed  not  as  reasonable  that  you  should 


hill's  relations  with  pope  215 

pardon  me  for  returning  your  compliment,  with  more  and 
opener  praise,  mixed  with  less  of  that  dirtiness,  which  we  have, 
both  of  us,  the  good  taste  to  complain  of. 

"  The  Caveat,  Sir,  was  mine.  It  would  have  been  ridiculous 
to  suppose  you  ignorant  of  it;  I  cannot  think  you  need  be  told 
that  it  meant  you  no  harm;  and  it  had  scorned  to  appear  under 
the  borrowed  name  it  carries,  but  that  the  whimsical  turn  of  the 
preface  would  have  made  my  own  a  contradiction.  I  promise 
you,  however,  that  for  the  future  I  will  publish  nothing  without 
my  name  that  concerns  you,  or  your  writings.  I  have  now 
almost  finished  an  Essay  on  Propriety  and  Impropriety,  in 
Design,  Thought,  and  Expression,  illustrated  hy  Examples  in 
both  Kinds  from  the  Writings  of  Mr.  Pope;  and,  to  convince 
you  how  much  more  pleasure  it  gives  me  to  distinguish  your 
lights  than  your  shades,  and  that  I  am  as  willing  as  I  ought  to 
be  to  see  and  acknowledge  my  faults,  I  am  ready,  with  all  my 
heart,  to  let  it  run  thus,  if  it  would  othei-wise  create  the  least 
pain  in  you :  An  Essay  on  Propriety  and  Impropriety,  etc., 
illustrated  by  Examjjles,  of  the  first,  from  the  Writings  of 
Mr.  Pope,  and  of  the  last,  from  those  of  the  Author. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  you  say  you  never  thought  any  great 
matters  of  your  poetry.  It  is,  in  my  opinion,  the  characteristic 
you  are  to  hope  your  distinction  from.  To  be  honest  is  the  duty 
of  every  plain  man!  Nor,  since  the  soul  of  poetry  is  sentiment, 
can  a  great  poet  want  morality.  But  your  honesty  you  possess 
in  common  with  a  million  who  will  never  be  remembered ;  whereas 
your  poetry  is  a  peculiar,  that  will  make  it  impossible  you  should 
be  forgotten.  If  you  had  not  been  in  the  spleen  when  you  wrote 
me  this  letter,  I  persuade  myself  you  would  not,  immediately 
after  censuring  the  pride  of  writers,  have  asserted  that  you 
certainly  know  your  moral  life  above  that  of  most  of  the  wits 
of  these  days;  at  any  other  time,  you  would  have  remembered 
that  humility  is  a  moral  virtue.  It  was  a  bold  declaration ;  and 
the  certainty  with  which  you  know  it  stands  in  need  of  a  better 
acquaintance,  than  you  seem  to  have  had  with  the  tribe;  since 
you  tell  me,  in  the  same  letter,  that  many  of  their  names  were 
unknown  to  you. 


216  AAEON    HILL 

"  Neither  would  it  appear  to  your  own  reason,  at  a  cooler 
juncture,  overeonsistent  with  the  morality  you  are  so  sure  of,  to 
scatter  the  letters  of  the  whole  alphabet  annexed  at  random  to 
characters  of  a  light  and  ridiculous  cast,  confusedly,  with  intent 
to  provoke  jealous  writers  into  resentment,  that  you  might  take 
occasion,  from  that  resentment,  to  expose  and  depreciate  their 
characters.  .  ,  .  Upon  the  whole,  Sir,  I  find  I  am  so  sincerely 
your  friend  that  it  is  not  in  your  power  to  make  me  your  enemy; 
else,  that  unnecessary  air  of  neglect  and  superiority,  which  is  so 
remarkable  in  the  turn  of  your  letter,  would  have  nettled  me  to 
the  quick;  and  I  must  triumph,  in  my  turn,  at  the  stx'ength  of 
my  own  heart,  who  can,  after  it,  still  find  and  profess  myself, 
most  affectionately  and  sincerely,  your  humble  servant." 

The  "manliness  and  spirit"^"  of  this  letter  is  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  evasiveness  of  Pope's.  Pope's  answer^^  is 
humble — a  proof  that  he  recognized  his  adversary's  ad- 
vantage— but  it  is  not  frank;  in  Dr.  Johnson's  words,  "he 
was  reduced  to  sneak  and  shuffle,  sometimes  to  deny,  and 
sometimes  to  apologize ;  he  first  endeavors  to  wound,  and  is 
then  afraid  to  own  that  he  meant  a  blow, '  '^~  He  begins  by 
proposing  mutual  forgiveness :  he  has  been  guilty  of  weak- 
ness; Hill,  of  too  much  warmth.  If  the  letter  was  silly, 
so  much  the  more  evident  was  his  trust  in  Hill's  good 
feeling  towards  him.  He  meant  to  show  no  incivility  or 
neglect,  but  merely  a  frank  plainness.  Towards  the  other 
writers  who  attacked  him,  "God  knows,  I  never  felt  any 
emotions  but  what  bad  writers  raise  in  all  men,  those  gentle 
ones  of  laughter  or  pity ;  that  I  was  so  open,  concerned,  and 
serious  with  respect  to  you  only,  is  sure  a  proof  of  regard, 
not  neglect.  For  in  truth,  nothing  ever  vexed  me  till  I  saw 
your  epigram  against  Dr.  S.  and  me  come  out  in  their 
papers;  and  this  indeed  did  vex  me,  to  see  one  swan  among 

30  Elwin  and  Courthope  's  Pope,  V,  225. 

31  February  5,  1731.     Col.  of  1751. 

32  Lives,  ed.  G.  B.  Hill,  III,  151. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  217 

the  geese.  That  the  letters  'A.  H'  were  applied  to  you  in 
the  papers  I  did  not  know  (for  I  seldom  read  them).  I 
heard  it  only  from  ^Ir.  Savage,  as  from  yourself,  and  sent 
my  assurances  to  the  contrary.  But  I  don't  see  how  the 
annotator  on  the  D  —  could  have  rectified  that  mistake 
publicly,  without  particularizing  your  name,  in  a  book 
where  I  thought  it  too  good  to  be  inserted.  No  doubt  he 
has  applied  that  passage  in  the  D  —  to  you,  by  the  story 
he  tells;  but  his  mention  of  homhast  only  in  some  of  your 
juvenile  pieces,  I  think,  was  meant  to  show,  that  passage 
hinted  only  at  that  allegorical  muddiness,  and  not  at  any 
worse  sort  of  dirt  with  which  some  other  writers  were 
charged.  I  hate  to  say  what  will  not  be  believed :  yet  when 
I  told  you,  many  asked  me  to  whom  that  oblique  praise 
was  meant,  I  did  not  tell  you  I  answered,  it  was  you.  Has 
it  escaped  your  observation  that  the  name  is  a  syllable  too 
long?  Or  (if  you  mil  have  it  a  Christian  name)  is  there 
any  other  in  the  whole  book?  Is  there  no  author  of  two 
syllables  whom  it  will  better  fit,  not  only  as  getting  out 
of  the  allegorical  muddiness,  but  as  having  been  dipt  in  the 
dirt  of  party-writing,  and  recovering  from  it  betimes?  I 
know  such  a  man,  who  would  take  it  for  a  compliment,  and 
so  would  his  patrons  too.  But  I  ask  you  not  to  believe  this, 
except  you  are  vastly  inclined  to  it.  [Hill  would  have 
been  vastly  credulous  if  he  had  done  so.]  I  will  come 
closer  to  the  point:  would  you  have  the  note  left  out?  it 
shall.  Would  you  have  it  expressly  said,  you  were  not 
meant?  it  shall,  if  I  have  any  influence  on  the  editors.  I 
believe  the  note  was  meant  only  as  a  gentle  rebuke  and 
friendly;  I  understood  very  well  the  Caveat  on  your  part 
to  be  the  same,  and  complained  (you  see)  of  nothing  but 
two  or  three  lines  reflecting  on  my  behaviour  and  temper 
to  other  writers ;  because  I  knew  they  were  not  true,  and 
you  could  not  know  they  were."     If  Hill  chooses,  he  may 


218  AARON    HILL 

confine  his  examples  of  impropriety  to  Pope's  works;  and 
he  will  try  to  amend  them.  "It  is  my  morality  only  that 
must  make  me  beloved  or  happy.  .  .  .  Therefore  it  is,  Sir, 
that  I  much  more  resent  any  attempt  against  my  moral 
character  (which  I  know  to  be  unjust)  than  any  to  lessen 
my  poetical  one  (which,  for  all  I  know,  may  be  very  just)." 
With  the  letter  came  a  peace-offering  of  the  Odyssey  for 
Miss  Urania. 

Pope's  equivocation  is  indeed  remarkable,  as  Mr.  Court- 
hope  says, — as  remarkable  as  the  "daring  with  which  he 
laid  himself  open  to  a  crushing  reply.  "^^  His  defense 
consists  of  two  mutually  destructive  parts:  he  meant  Hill 
a  compliment,  and  he  did  not  mean  Hill  at  all.  Hill  was 
certainly  not  too  stupid  to  perceive  the  opening  offered  by 
Pope's  shuffling  evasions,  but  he  generously  declared  him- 
self quite  willing  to  forget  "the  appearance  of  everything 
that  has  been  distasteful  to  either."  The  objectionable 
lines  in  the  Caveat  were  added  as  an  afterthought  by  way 
of  introducing  the  allegory  less  abruptly;  "but,"  he  adds, 
"I  confess  it  w^as  unreasonable  in  me  to  cover  your  praise, 
which  I  delighted  in,  under  the  veil  of  an  allegory,  and 
explain  my  censure  too  openly,  in  which  I  could  take  no 
pleasure."  As  to  the  offer  to  omit  the  Dunciad  note,  it  is 
kind;  "but  I  am  satisfied.  It  is  over,  and  deserves  no 
more  of  your  application."  Then  in  the  last  paragraph 
he  makes  casual  mention  of  that  Essay  on  Propriety, 
promising  to  send  it  to  Pope  before  publication.  He  also 
promises  the  manuscript  of  a  new  poem,  and  requests  that 
Pope  star  any  passage  concerning  himself  of  which  he  does 
not  approve.^* 

The  new  poem  was  Advice  to  the  Poets. — To  ivhich  is  pre- 
fixed an  Epistle  dedicatory  to  the  few  great  spirits  of  Great 

33  Pope,  X,  17,  D.  1. 

34  February  10,  1731.  Col.  of  1751  (there  wrongly  dated  1731- 
1732). 


hill's  relations  with  pope  219 

Britain.  These  few  great  spirits  are  the  patrons  capable 
of  distinguishing  between  poets  and  pretenders,  and  of 
encouraging  the  former.  Hill  calls  upon  Pope  to  hear  the 
Muse  he  invokes : 

"  she  sounds  th'inspired  decree, 
Thou  great  archangel  of  wit's  heaven,  for  thee." 

Half-souled  poets  may  fall  foul  of  one  another : 

"  But  let  no  muse  pre-eminent  as  thine, 
Of  voice  melodious  and  of  force  divine. 
Stung,  by  wit's  wasps,  all  rights  of  rank  forego, 
And  turn  to  snarl  and  bite  at  eveiy  foe." 

A  few  lines  refer  to  the  late  quarrel : 

"  Should  even  hot  rashness  erring  javelins  throw. 
And  strike  our  friendly  breast,  supposed  a  foe, 
How  nobler  still  to  undeceive  than  blame! 
And  chasten  insult  with  the  blush  of  shame." 

The  rest  of  the  poem  is  chiefly  concerned  with  such  advice 
to  poets  as  to  praise  merit,  strike  at  oppression,  kindle 
patriotism,  and  the  like.  In  conclusion,  the  poet,  declar- 
ing his  preference  for  obscurity,  describes  himself  as  hug- 
ging his  rest, — an  amusing  picture  of  Hill,  who  could  do 
everything  but  rest. 

Pope  evidently  starred  a  few  lines,  and  said  of  the  poem, 
"The  satisfaction  it  gave  me  is  proportioned  to  the  regard 
I  have  for  you," — one  of  his  eminently  safe  statements.^^ 
He  again  suggests  leaving  out  the  Dunciad  note, — that  is, 
he  thinks  the  "two  lords  and  one  gentleman,  who  really 
took  and  printed  that  edition,"  can  be  persuaded.^®  In  his 
next  letter,  he  expresses  himself  as  pleased  with  the  dedica- 
tion "equally  with  the  poem," — safe  again!  "Our  hearts 
beat  just  together,  in  regard  to  men  of  power  and  quality ; 

35  February  15,  1731.     Col.  of  1751. 

36  For  comment  on  this  see  Elwin  and  Courthope'a  Pope,  general 
introduction  to  the  Bunciad,  vol.  IV. 


220  AARON    HILL 

but  a  series  of  infirmities,  for  my  whole  life  has  been  but 
one  long  disease,  had  hindered  me  from  following  your 
advice."^'' 

The  Dunciad  quarrel  may  now  be  regarded  as  practically 
closed,  and  the  victory  awarded  to  Hill.  He  had  inspired 
his  antagonist  with  respect  by  pushing  him  to  the  wall,  and 
with  gratitude  by  forbearing  to  take  an  ungenerous  ad- 
vantage. It  must  have  appeared  to  Pope  better  to  be  a 
little  bored  by  flattery,  better  even  to  return  the  flattery 
from  time  to  time,  than  run  the  risk  of  any  public  exposure 
as  cutting  as  this  private  one  had  been.  Whatever  were 
his  secret  feelings  after  this,  however  tiresome  or  ridiculous 
he  may  have  thought  Hill's  works,  he  avoided  open  provo- 
cation. Hill  understood  the  value  of  Pope's  protestations  of 
sincerity,  and  Pope  knew  that  he  did.  Mr.  Courthope  likes 
to  think  of  all  the  subsequent  civilities  of  Pope — his  cor- 
respondence with  Hill,  his  efforts  in  behalf  of  Hill's  plays, 
his  reading  of  Hill's  MSS. — as  one  long  penance  per- 
formed in  the  consciousness  of  having  injured  a  worthy 
man — who  knew  how  to  retaliate.^^  Indeed,  it  could 
scarcely  be  called  anything  else,  when  it  involved  the  read- 
ing and  re-reading  even  to  the  sixth  time  of  a  Caesar. 
But  there  was  only  one  Caesar,  and  there  were  compensa- 
tions in  Hill 's  friendship :  he  had  attractive  personal  quali- 
ties— for  that  there  is  ample  testimony;^"  and  he  might 
prove  useful  as  an  ally. 

The  rather  brisk  correspondence  for  the  rest  of  the  year 
1731 — there  are  thirteen  letters,  three  only  of  them  Hill's, 
from  September  to  November  13  alone — is  chiefly  concerned 

37  March  14,  1731.     Col.  of  1751. 

38Elwin  and  Courthope 's  Pope,  III,  386,  n.  1. 

39  Davies  (Life  of  Garrick,  I,  ch.  13)  describes  him  in  later  life: 
"his  figure,  air,  and  manner  were  gracefully  venerable;  with  a  warm 
and  benevolent  mind,  he  had  the  delicate  address  and  polite  manners 
of  the  complete  gentleman. ' ' 


hill's  relations  with  pope  221 

with  Athelivold,  and  is  devoid  of  any  special  interest. 
With  "great  timorousness "  Pope  suggested  a  few  changes 
in  the  play,  indicated  in  the  margin  with  his  black  pencil, — 
"half  afraid  to  be  legible."**'  And  that  the  fear  was 
justified  is  evident  from  the  very  polite  and  elaborate  ex- 
planation Hill  gave  of  his  reasons  for  not  adopting  some 
of  the  emendations;*^  he  was  not  offended,  but  he  took 
criticism  with  a  deadly  seriousness  that  must  have  been 
extremely  disconcerting.  The  death  of  Hill's  wife  on  June 
25,  1731,  brought  a  letter  of  condolence  from  Pope*-  with 
a  more  sincere  note  than  usual;  Hill  appreciated  it:  "It 
will  never  be  in  my  power  to  forget  how  compassionate 
you  have  been,  in  calling  and  sending  so  often.  It  is  plain, 
you  have  none  of  the  fashionable  want  of  feeling  for  the 
calamities  of  others."  He  asks  Pope's  advice  about  a 
monument  to  be  placed  in  the  Abbey  cloisters;  "the  low 
and  unmeaning  lumpishness"  in  the  vulgar  style  of  monu- 
ments disgusts  him,  and  he  encloses  a  rough  sketch  of  an 
idea  of  his  owti.*^  Pope  apparently  managed  to  avoid  giv- 
ing advice  on  this  delicate  matter.  Two  of  his  letters  of 
this  month**  refer  to  his  mother's  illness  and  contain 
invitations  to  visit  Twickenham :  "I  could  wish,  if  Miss 
Hill,  under  a  father's  authority,  might  venture,  she  saw 
me  before  I  am  quite  decayed,  I  mean  all  of  me  that  is  yet 
half  flourishing — my  garden."  This  visit  finally  took 
place  about  October  20.*^     Once  he  mentions  the  quarrel  :*® 

40  Pope  to  HUl,  June  5,  1731.     Col.  of  1751   (misprinted  "Jan.")- 

41  October  29,  1731,  Works,  1753,  I,  92.  These  corrections  derive  a 
certain  importance  from  the  fact  that  the  handwriting  forms  part  of 
the  evidence  used  in  deciding  whether  Pope  was  the  author  of  the 
emendations  in  Thomson's  Seasons.  See  Notes  and  Queries,  8th  S., 
XII,  389,  article  by  D.  C.  Tovey. 

42  September  1,  1731.     Col.  of  1751. 

43  September  17,  1731,  WorJcs,  I,  65  f. 

44  September  3  and  25,  1731.     Col.  of  1751. 

45  Hill  to  Wilks,  October  23,  WorJcs,  I,  88. 

4c  Pope  to  Hill,  October  9,  1731,  Col.  of  1751. 


222  AAEON    HILL 

"I  have  been  as  ill  as  when  I  writ  you  that  peevish  image 
of  my  soul,  a  letter  some  time  since,  which  had  the  good 
effect  of  making  us  know  one  another," — and  which  was 
now,  he  might  have  added,  forcing  him  to  make  interest 
for  Hill's  play  with  Lady  Suffolk  and  even  the  king  and 
queen.^^ 

The  failure  of  Athelwold  closed  that  chapter  in  their 
correspondence,  and  the  publication  (December,  1731)  of 
Pope's  Epistle  to  the  Earl  of  Burlington — Of  False  Taste, 
a  title  adopted  in  the  third  edition  on  Hill's  suggestion,*^ 
opened  a  new  but  very  brief  one,  closed  after  three  or  four 
letters.  In  the  storm  of  criticism  aroused  by  the  popular 
identificaition  of  "Timon"  in  the  Epistle  with  the  Duke  of 
Chandos,  Pope  turned  to  Hill  for  help.  ' '  If  there  be  truth 
in  the  world,"  he  writes,*^  "I  declare  to  you,  I  never 
imagined  the  least  application  of  what  I  said  of  Tiraon 
could  be  made  to  the  Duke  of  Chandos,  ithan  whom  there  is 
scarce  a  more  blameless,  worthy,  and  generous,  beneficent 
character  among  all  our  nobility.  ...  I  am  certain,  if  you 
calmly  read  every  particular  of  that  description,  you  will 
find  almost  all  of  them  point  blank  the  reverse  of  that 
person's  \dlla."^°  Noting  how  awkward  it  is  to  fight  in 
defense  of  one's  own  work,  he  adds  insinuatingly,  "It 
would  have  been  a  pleasure  to  me,  to  have  found  some 
friend  saying  a  word  in  my  justification,  against  a  most 
malicious  falsehood.  .  .  .  Believe  me,  I  would  rather  never 
have  written  a  verse  in  my  life,  than  that  any  of  them 
should  trouble  a  truly  good  man.  It  was  once  my  case 
before,  but  happily  reconciled;  and  among  generous  minds 
nothing  so   endears   friends   as   the   having  offended   one 

47  See  letters  from  Pope  to  Hill,  October  9  and  29,  Col.  of  1751. 

48  Pope  to  Hill,  February  5,  1732,  Col.  of  1751. 
40  December  22,  1731,  Col.  of  1751, 

50  The  truth  of  this  statement  is  discussed  in  the  introduction  to 
Moral  Essay  IV.  Elwin  and  Courthope  's  Pope. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  223 

another.  I  lament  the  malice  of  the  age,  that  studies  to 
see  its  own  likeness  in  everything ;  I  lament  the  dulness  of 
it,  that  cannot  see  an  excellence;  the  first  is  my  unhappi- 
ness,  the  second  yours.  I  look  upon  the  fate  of  your  piece 
like  that  of  a  great  treasure,  which  is  buried  as  soon  as 
brought  to  light ;  but  is  sure  to  be  dug  up  the  next  age,  and 
enrich  posterity."  He  refers  in  closing  to  his  fear  of 
losing  his  mother — dearer  to  him  than  anything,  except  his 
morals. 

It  seemed  impossible  for  Pope  to  avoid  talking  to  Hill 
of  his  morals.  And  it  annoyed  Hill.  After  Pope's  death, 
he  wrote  to  Richardson :"  ' '  One  of  his  worst  mistakes  was 
that  unnecessary  noise  he  used  to  make  in  boast  of  his 
morality.  It  seemed  to  me  almost  a  call  upon  suspicion, 
that  a  man  should  rate  the  duties  of  plain  honesty  as  if 
they  had  been  qualities  extraordinary.  And,  in  fact,  I  saw 
on  some  occasions  that  he  found  those  duties  too  severe  for 
practise;  and  but  prized  himself  upon  the  character,  in 
proportion  to  the  pains  it  cost  him  to  support  it."  This 
may  have  been  one  of  the  occasions  Hill  had  in  mind;  and 
perhaps  the  flattery  in  the  letter  was  too  obviously  due  to 
interested  motives.  At  all  events,  instead  of  rushing  into 
print  in  defense  of  his  friend,  Hill  confesses  to  having  fallen 
"at  the  first  and  second  reading  .  .  .  into  the  general  con- 
struction that  had  been  put  upon  the  character  of  Timon. ' ' 
Then,  however,  he  noticed  those  points  of  difference  already 
set  forth  in  the  newspapers.  No  doubt,  "that  unguarded 
absence  of  caution,  which  is  a  mark  by  which  one  may  be 
sure  a  purpose  was  either  angry  or  generous"  prevented 
Pope's  realizing  the  occasion  for  slander  in  the  name  of 
Timon,  in  view  of  the  Duke  of  Chandos's  recent  reverse  of 
fortune.     He  points  out  a  few  details  that  are  not  "point 

51  September  10,  1744,  in  Eichardson 's  Correspondence,  ed.  Mrs.. 
Barbauld,  I,  106. 


224  AARON    HILL 

blank  the  reverse"  of  the  Duke's  villa;  "as  to  the  many 
unresembling  particulars,  they  are  drowned,  like  the  mis- 
taken predictions  of  eleven  months  in  an  almanac,  where 
the  events  of  the  twelfth  come  by  chance  to  be  accom- 
plished." The  next  paragraph  must  have  annoyed  Pope: 
"But  that  it  is  a  rule  with  me  to  consider  the  letters  I  re- 
ceive from  my  friends  as  their  own  property  still,  though 
trusted  to  my  possession,  I  could  more  effectually  convince 
him  [the  Duke]  how  he  ought  to  think,  by  letting  him  see 
how  you  think  on  this  subject,  in  an  easy,  undesigning, 
natural  indignation,  expressed  in  a  private  letter,  than  by 
all  the  most  labored  endeavors  of  yourself  or  your  friends 
in  public. '  '^-     There  is  a  suggestion  of  quiet  malice  here. 

When  Pope  wrote  again,^^  it  was  merely  to  tell  Hill  how 
strongly  the  Duke  had  assured  him  of  the  ' '  rectitude  of  his 
opinion"  and  his  resentment  at  the  report, — an  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Duke's  attitude  much  more  favorable  to  himself 
than  the  Duke's  letter  warranted.^^  And  then  there  is  a 
break  in  the  correspondence  of  nearly  a  year.  Perhaps  it 
is  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  Hill's  failure  to  take  up 
arms  for  Pope  in  this  exigency.  Or  it  is  barely  possible 
that  he  may  have  connected  Pope  with  a  fling  at  Athelwold 
in  the  Grub  Street  Journal  of  this  month  (no.  112)  :  "A 
play  may  be  called  theatrical  that  is  written  by  any  person 
belonging  to  the  theatre,  or  that  is  given  to  the  theatre. 
...  Of  this  sort  was  Athelwold,  which,  as  I  am  informed, 
was  given  to  the  house;  but  I  don't  find  that  its  being 
theatrical  could  prevent  its  dying  a  natural  death  soon 
after  its  birth."  Of  course  Pope's  connection  with  the 
paper  was  not  avowed,  and  may  not  have  been  suspected 

52  Hill  to  Pope,  December  23,  1731,  Worls,  I,  106  f. 

53  February  5,  1732  (misdated  1730-1  in  the  Col.  of  1751). 

54  Johnson  (Lives,  ed.  G.  B.  Hill,  III,  153)  says  that  Pope's  letter 
to  the  Duke  ' '  was  answered  with  great  magnanimity,  as  by  a  man 
who  accepted  his  excuse  without  believing  his  professions." 


hill's  relations  with  pope  225 

by  Hill  at  this  time.  Or  without  seeking  any  more  definite 
explanation,  we  may  assume  mere  incompatibility  of 
temper.  Their  intercourse  was  probably  ruffled  more  than 
once  by  little  encounters  like  the  following,  related  by  Hill 
to  Kichardson  some  years  later -.^^ 

"There  was  a  verse  which  Mr.  Pope  .  .  .  was  very  fond 
of :  '  For  fools  admire,  but  men  of  sense  approve. '  I  used  to 
tell  him  I  abhorred  the  sentiment,  both  from  its  arrogance, 
and  want  of  truth  in  nature.  We  had  many  contests  of 
this  kind ;  but  there  are  arguers  whom  heaven,  as  this  same 
gentleman  expresses  it  extremely  well,  'has  cursed  with 
hearts  unknowing  how  to  yield.'  And  so  our  battles  were 
usually  drawn  ones.  ...  In  the  last  debate  we  had  upon 
this  subject,  I  desired  to  know  if  he  was  still  .  .  .  convinced 
Longinus's  remark  on  the  sublime  was  right? — That  the 
most  certain  way  of  knowing  it  is  from  the  power  in  some 
idea  touched  enthusiastically  to  move  the  blood  and  spirits 
into  transport  by  a  thrilling  kind  of  joy.  .  .  .  He  owned 
it  was  the  strongest  definition  of  the  true  sublime  that 
could  be  possibly  imagined;  but  was  sure  only  men  of 
genius  could  conceive  it.  "Whereupon  I  asked  him  whether 
joy  and  transport  and  enthusiasm  and  a  thrill  of  blood 
could  possibly  consist  with  want  of  admiration?  He  per- 
ceived the  use  I  made  of  his  concession,  and  said  nothing, 
till  I  added  this  new  question :  Whether  only  fools  admire, 
if  only  men  of  genius  are  susceptible  of  a  sublimity  of 
admiration?  In  some  perplexity  to  find  a  better  answer, 
he  was  forced  to  satisfy  himself  with  saying  that  Longi- 
nus's remark  was  truth;  but  like  certain  truths  of  more 
importance,  it  required  assent  from  faith,  without  the  evi- 
dence of  demonstration."  Hill  then  said  he  had  seen  it 
demonstrated,  at  a  play-reading  at  Lord  Tyrconnel's:  in 
the  course  of  a  discussion  about  the  difficulty  of  delicate 

'■5  October  13,  1746.     Eichardson's  Correspondence,  I,  112. 
16 


226  AARON   HILL 

and  manly  praise,  a  gentleman  of  rank  and  genius  had 
repeated  Pope's  lines  to  Oxford,  declaring  that  he  never 
could  read  them  without  rapture,  and  looking  his  rapture 
as  he  spoke.  Pope,  of  course,  asked  who  the  gentleman 
was„  and  Hill  named  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Pope's  manner  of  receiving  the  compliment — "with  a 
strained  supercilious  smile, ' '  and  the  comment, ' '  the  Speaker 
is  a  man  remarkable  for  heat  and  passion,  and  such  trans- 
ports will  be  common  to  such  tempers," — disgusted  Hill 
to  such  an  extent  that  he  never  afterwards  recovered  the 
opinion  he  then  lost  of  "that  (too  loud)  pretension  to  high 
morals"  Pope  liked  to  make  on  all  occasions.  Such  con- 
temptuous disregard  of  praise  was  in  too  marked  contrast 
to  his  earlier  sedulous  seeking  after  it.^^ 

It  was  Pope  who  renewed  their  intercourse  by  sending 
Hill  his  Epistle  of  the  Use  of  Riches.  Hill,  glad  to  know 
that  Pope  has  "good-nature  enough  to  remember  one  who 
must  have  seemed  not  to  have  deserved  the  distinction," 
refers  to  other  favors  from  Pope,  not  acknowledged  sooner 
because  he  has  a  plan  of  doing  it  shortly.^^  He  may  have 
had  in  mind  a  defense  of  Pope  such  as  he  intended  for  the 
Weekly  Miscellany,  though  it  was  not  printed  there,  and 
perhaps  never  sent;  it  is  in  the  Forster  MS.  and  undated. 
After  quoting  from  Pope's  "late  imitation  of  Horace, "^^ 
he  declares  its  beauties  ought  to  "exempt  him  from  being 
accountable,  like  other  men,  for  the  transports  of  spleen 
or  anguish."  Hill's  next  letter,'^"  four  months  later,  dis- 
ss The  play-reading  referred  to  was  that  of  Athelwold  at  Lord 
Tyrconnel's,  December,  1731,  when  Speaker  Onslow  was  present  and 
spoke  of  Pope  with  esteem.  See  Hill's  letter  to  Onslow,  December 
16,  Works,  I,  344.  The  conversation  with  Pope  may  not  have  taken 
place  until  some  months  later. 

57  Hill  to  Pope,  January  16,  1733,  Worls,  1,  126. 

58  Published  February  14,  1733. 

59  May  16,  1733,  Worlcs,  I,  128. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  227 

poses  of  the  necessary  business  of  flattery  briefly,  by  thank- 
ing Pope  for  the  Imitation  and  enclosing  in  return  some 
lines  he  had  sent  from  Newcastle  five  or  six  years  before, 
brushed  up  for  this  occasion  f°  his  real  object  is  an  inquiry 
about  the  stage  patent.  Pope  is  delighted  at  the  partiality 
Hill  displays  for  him  as  man  and  poet;  as  to  the  verses,  it 
would  be  wronging  sense  and  poetry  not  to  say  they  were 
fine  ones,  and  "such  as  I  could  not  forget,  having  once 
seen  them."*'^  The  latter  statement  might  be  made  of 
much  of  Hill's  poetry. 

During  the  rest  of  the  year,  they  continued  on  a  basis  of 
courteous  invitation  and  polite  inquiry,  with  occasional 
excursions  into  the  realms  of  gardening  and  the  stage.*'- 
Pope  admired  a  little  obelisk  of  Jersey  shells  in  Hill's 
garden — his  house  was  in  Petty  France,  overlooking  St. 
James's  Park,  where  Pope  sometimes  came  to  wait  upon 
him, — and  Hill  promptly  sent  a  package  of  the  shells  to 
embellish  the  marine  temple  at  Twickenham.  For  the 
obelisk  Pope  designs  to  build  there.  Hill  offers  shells,  ma- 
terial, and  workmanship.  Pope  thanks  him  for  the  pretty 
shells,  the  more  agreeable  letter,  and  the  most  excellent 
translation  of  Voltaire;  and  after  a  little  talk  of  Dennis's 
distress  and  Thomson's  new  poem,  the  letters  cease. 

To  account  for  the  silence  of  nearly  five  years  that 
follows,  it  has  been  conjectured  that  Hill  wore  out  Pope's 
patience  with  importunate  requests  for  criticism  upon  his 

60  Perhaps  the  liaes  to  Pope,  Worls,  III,  9. 

61  May  22,  1733,  Col.  of  1751. 

62  See  letters  of  Hill  to  Pope,  September  20  (WorJcs,  II,  178), 
November  10  (I,  343),  November  7  (I,  177);  and  of  Pope  to  Hill, 
November  13  {Col.  of  1751).  Lady  Walpole  also  admired  the  rock- 
work  in  Hill 's  garden,  and  inquired  after  the  compositions  he  used ; 
he  tells  her^  and  also  describes  for  her  a  Temple  of  Happiness,  with 
grottos  of  Power,  Riches,  and  so  on,  and  innumerable  statues. 
(Hill  to  Lady  Walpole,  May  and  June,  1734,  WorJcs,  I,  190  and  199). 


228  AARON   HILL 

work.*'^  The  correspondence  so  far  discussed  does  not  in- 
dicate this;  one  might  read  Athelwold  and  Zara  several 
times  without  distress.  If  Hill  solicited  assistance  in 
securing  audiences,  Pope  in  his  turn  sought  defense  against 
public  attack.  A  more  likely  explanation  is  to  be  found 
in  a  lively  controversy  that  took  place  between  the 
Prompter  and  the  Gruh  Street  Journal. 

Hill  started  the  Prompter  in  November,  1734,  about  a 
year  after  the  last  letter  quoted.  A  few  months  later,  dis- 
cussion of  Matthew  Tindal,  the  famous  freethinker,  who 
had  died  in  1733,  began  to  occupy  the  newspapers.*'* 
Eustace  Budgell's  paper,  the  Bee,  published  among  other 
things  his  will — the  will  Budgell  is  accused  of  forging — 
and  a  prayer.  Over  this  philosopher's  prayer,  the  Grub 
Street  Journal,^^  as  the  champion  of  Christianity,  began  to 
wage  a  fierce  war  with  the  Bee,  and  for  months  the  battle 
raged.  In  the  98th  number  of  October  17,  the  Prompter 
(probably  Popple,  as  the  signature  is  "P")  rashly  entered 
the  lists  by  remarking  upon  the  meanness  of  mind  of  those 
who  take  every  occasion  to  manifest  a  dislike ;  the  Bee,  for 
instance,  has  incurred  the  hostility  of  a  set  of  obscure 
writers  by  its  defense  of  a  prayer,®"  And  it  is  a  very  good 
prayer,  too, — a  decent  and  modest  declaration,  justified  as 
philosophy  or  reason,  with  which  faith  and  revelation  have 
nothing  to  do.  Grud  Street  turned  with  zest  to  its  new 
antagonist,  and  printed  a  dialogue  between  Prompterus 
and  Pufferus  Secundus  (the  Bee)  :^'' 

esElwin  and  Courthope's  Pojye,  X,  53,  n.  1. 

64  No.  265  of  the  Grui  Street  Journal,  January  21,  1735,  printed  an 
attack  upon  his  character. 

65  No.  296,  August  28,  1735. 

66  Hill  was  on  good  terms  with  the  Bee:  in  February  1733,  the  Bee 
printed  Hill's  verses  on  Dryden's  monument;  in  May  1733,  a  scene 
from  Zara;  and  in  June  1733,  the  Address  from  the  Statiies  of  Stowe 
to  Lord  Cobham. 

67  No.  304,  October  23. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  229 

Prompt.    I've  advertised  and  puffed  this  thing  of  mine 
In  vain,  though  got  to  No.  99. 

Puff.  "Write  'gainst  the  Grubs.     'Twill  give  it  a  new  motion, 

If  you'll  defend  my  prayer's  profound  devotion. 

Prompt.    'Twould  fill,  to  answer  all  their  damned  reflections, 
Three  Prompters. 

Puff.  Snap  at  two  or  three  objections. 

This  still  has  been  my  way.     In  puffs  I'll  bully. 
And  tell  the  world  that  you  have  answered  fully. 

The  Frompter^^  retaliated  by  quoting  another  prayer,  with 
the  supposed  critical  emendations  of  Bavius  of  Grub 
Street.^^  The  only  drawback  to  the  effectiveness  of  the 
retort  is  that  the  emendations,  meant  to  ridicule  Grub 
Street  criticism,  strike  one  as  rather  better  than  the  prayer. 
Grub  Street,'"^  in  a  counter  attack  of  more  serious  nature, 
accused  the  author  of  the  Prompter  of  deism  and  infidelity. 
Puffs  of  the  Prompter  in  recent  numbers  of  the  Daily 
Journal  inspire  an  epigram : 

"  These  twins  of  different  name. 
Prompter  and  Daily  Journal,  are  the  same." 

At  this  point,  "B,"  probably  Hill  himself.,  takes  a 
hand:'^^  his  remarks  on  intemperance  and  scurrility  in 
argument  are  directed  against  Oruh  Street's  attempt  to  re- 
strain free  thinking;  his  epigrams  are  levelled  not  only 
against  the   paper,   but   against   Pope.     The   first  merely 

68N0S.  101  and  102. 

69  The  headquarters  of  the  Knights  of  the  Bathos  were  at  the  Sign 
of  the  Pegasus  in  Grub  Street;  the  pretended  secretary  of  the  society 
was  called  Bavius.  A  man  named  Eussel,  a  non-juring  clergyman, 
ran  the  paper,  but  Pope  was  the  power  behind  the  management,  from 
1730  to  about  1735.  See  in  Thomas  E.  Lounsbury's  Text  of  Shal-es- 
peare  (1906),  ch.  XIX  on  the  Grub  Street  Journal. 

70  No.  307. 

71  No.  107,  November  18. 


230  AARON    HILL 

notes  how  sad  it  would  be,  if  a  paper,  called  Grub  Street  in 
jest,  should  really  live  up  to  the  name.  The  second  hits 
at  Pope's  well-known  use  of  the  journal  for  attacks  and 
defenses  in  his  own  behalf : 

"  P  -  -  e,  who  oft  overflows  both  with  wit  and  with  spleen, 
Felt  the  want  of  a  dung-cart  to  keep  himself  clean; 
So  he  furnished  a  priest  with  a  carriage,  ding-dong, 
And  made  him  his  drayman  to  drive  it  along." 

Henceforth  the  Prompter  always  characterizes  the  Gruh 
Street  Journal  as  Pope's  drayman.  In  no.  308,  Gruh  Street 
varies  the  attack  by  scornful  comments  on  the  false  quanti- 
ties in  a  Latin  epigram  published  in  no.  105  of  the 
Prompter.  And  then  the  latter  prints  an  adverse  criticism 
of  Pope  as  a  satirist,  ostensibly  by  a  correspondent.'^'^ 
Back  came  an  epigram  -J^ 

"  In  quiet  let  Tindal's  adopted  inherit ; 
Complain  of  great  men  and  his  own  slighted  merit; 
Let  him  rail,  let  him  rail,  be  eternally  railing 
At  priests  and  the  Christian  religion's  prevailing. 
Let  the  Prompter,  his  second,  too  take  up  the  cudgel. 
And  weakly  and  formally  vindicate  Budgell; 
If  the  Gospel  e'er  suffer  from  two  such  infectors. 
The  world  must  be  crazy,  or  Beech-Oil  projectors." 

And  so  it  went  on.  "P"  and  the  reverend  drayman 
quarrel  over  faith,  reason,  Socrates,  Christianity,  and  a 
state  religion ;  make  elaborate  reductio-ad-absurdums  of 
each  other's  arguments;  and  comment  acrimoniously  on 
the  philosophic  temper  exhibited  in  each  other's  epigrams. 
Before  the  end  of  December,  they  are  disputing  over  the 
proper  use  of  a  Latin  word,  and  calling  each  other  snails 
and  toads.'^*     As  a  welcome  variation,  there  is  some  ridicule 

72Nos.  108  and  111. 

73  No.  310. 

74  Grub  Street  Journal,  nos.  311-315.    Prompter,  nos.  112  and  119. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  231 

of  the  "mystical  verbology  "  of  the  Prompter's  English 
style:  what  can  possibly  be  meant  by  an  "actor  general, 
plastic,  and  unspecificate  ?  "^^  The  reader  may  well  echo 
the  question.  The  death  of  the  drayman,  in  a  mock  battle 
with  Horace,  Livy,  and  others,"'^  is  reported  in  no.  128 ;  but 
for  all  that,  his  ghost  continues  to  hover  over  his  cart. 
More  trouble,  enlivened  by  charges  of  plagiarism,  arose 
over  Popple's  play.  The  Double  Deceit,  and  The  Man  of 
Taste,  supported  by  the  GruJ)  Street  Journal. 

An  interesting  fact  connected  with  this  unedifying  dis- 
pute is  that  both  Pope  and  Hill  disclaimed  any  share  in 
it, — a  denial  that  was  certainly  disingenuous  in  one  case, 
and  probably  so  in  the  other.  Pope  denied'^  that  he  had 
ever  had  "the  least  hand,  direction,  or  supervisal,  or  the 
least  knowledge"  of  the  author  of  the  paper;  yet  it  has 
been  proved  beyond  all  doubt  that  he  was  a  contributor. 
And  Hill  wrote  to  Richardson"*  about  "the  angry  and 
unjust  personalities"  appearing  against  him  in  the  Gruh 
Street  Journal,  misrepresenting  him  as  the  defender  of  the 
prayer  and  the  assailant  of  The  Man  of  Taste;  "as  you 
know,"  he  adds,  "that  I  have  nothing  to  answer  for  on 
either  of  these  two  heads,  having  never  seen  any  of  those 
papers,  till  I  read  them  in  the  published  Prompters,  I 
should  take  it  as  a  favor,  if  you  would  immediately  find 
means  to  undeceive  the  gentlemen  concerned."  He  de- 
clares that  he  knows  neither  the  author  nor  the  publisher 
of  the  paper,  and  does  not  wish  to  defend  himself  publicly, 
because  he  hates  personal  bickerings  among  writers.  It 
seems  incredible  that  Hill  did  not  connect  Pope  with  the 

T5  Grub  Street  Journal,  no.  320,  February  12,  1736. 

"6  The  battle  is  described  in  no.  123.  The  reverend  militant  who 
succeeded  Eussel  was  Miller,  another  of  Pope's  partisans. 

7"  In  a  note  on  line  378'  of  his  Epistle  to  Dr.  Arbuthnot.  See 
Elwin  and  Courthope's  Pope,  III,  270,  n.  2. 

-8  March  6,  1735-6,  Forster  MS. 


232  AARON    HILL 

attacks,  when  his  collaborator  Popple  did.  In  spite  of  all 
denials,  it  remains  true  that  two  papers,  one  connected  with 
Hill,  the  other  with  Pope,  were  for  months  calling  each 
other  names  in  a  most  offensive  manner,  over  the  deceased 
Dr.  Tindal's  very  uninteresting  prayer.  It  was  not  the 
way  to  cement  friendly  relations  between  them.  Pope,  it 
is  true,  inquired  kindly  after  Hill  through  Thomson,  but 
Hill's  acknowledgment  shows  resentment:  he  is  glad  Pope 
remembers  him,  but  adds,  "I  am  made  sure,  by  some 
reasons  I  have  to  be  convinced  we  think  differently  of  each 
other,  that  my  esteem  for  him  is  the  effect  of  his  excel- 
lencies, because  it  could  have  no  ground  to  grow  in,  if  it 
were  the  return  of  partiality."'^  When  the  Memoirs  of 
the  Society  of  Gruh  Street  was  published  in  1737,  the 
preface  contained  a  condescending  reference  to  "our  late 
unsuccessful  brother  the  Prompter,"  which  could  scarcely 
have  been  palatable  to  Hill.  And  so  at  last  the  whole  affair 
ended,  having  amounted  to  nothing  but  bickering,  stupid 
at  best,  indecent  at  worst. 

It  must  have  been  to  Pope  something  of  a  shock  to  receive 
in  May,  1738,^°  an  eighteen-page  letter  from  his  former 
correspondent,  once  more  threatening  the  publication  of 
the  Essay  on  Propriety, — perhaps  to  even  up  things  after 
the  Gruh  Street  episode.  The  sight  of  some  of  Pope's 
"vegetable  children"  in  Lady  Peterborough's  garden  had 
reminded  Hill  of  Pope,  and  the  prospect  of  leisure  re- 
minded him  of  the  essay.^^  As  he  finds,  in  looking  over  it, 
that  many  examples  reflect  upon  Pope,  he  wishes  to  submit 

79  Hill  to  Thomson,  May  20,  1736,  Worlcs,  I,  23G. 

80  Worl-s,  I,  248  f . 

81  "After  having  vainlv  aspired  to  be  active  to  some  good  ends  and 
good  offices,  which  I  am  not  allowed  the  prosperity  that  was  necessary 
for  effectually  reaching,  all  I  now  find  remaining  as  a  task  for  my 
future  solitude  is  to  learn  to  be  lazy  without  spleen,  and  submit  to 
be  useless  with  temper. ' ' 


hill's  relations  with  pope  233 

them  to  his  final  decision.  Part  of  the  essay  deals  with 
propriety  of  expression — ^too  often  violated.  For  instance, 
just  as  "shagged"  in  one  of  Pope's  lines  could  have  no 
other  word  substituted  for  it  without  loss,. so  "scour"  in  the 
lines  on  Camilla  is  unfortunate — it  checks  the  speed  of  the 
idea  he  has  been  trying  to  convey,  and  suggests  pressure, 
attrition,  adlierence.  Other  examples  follow,  though  of 
course  improprieties  in  Pope  are  few  indeed !  He  then 
turns  to  the  Bathos.  He  scarcely  expects  to  trouble  the 
public  with  his  reflections  on  that,  but  urges  Pope  to  assure 
himself  of  the  justice  of  his  censures ;  for  if  they  are  un- 
just, the  disgrace  attached  to  the  victim  will  be  transferred 
to  the  censurer.  The  criticism  of  Theobald  is  one  he  thinks 
unwarranted  in  some  respects.  He  closes  with  the  ac- 
knowledgment that  he  could  go  on  in  this  way  much  longer, 
though  his  letter  is  already  of  an  "unmerciful  length," 
— as  it  was. 

Pope's  reply,  with  its  protestations  of  sincerity  and  its 
attempt  to  shift  responsibility,  is  almost  an  echo  of  earlier 
letters.®-  As  to  Theobald,  he  never  supposed  the  play  con- 
taining the  lines  in  question  was  Theobald's;  Theobald  him- 
self said  it  was  Shakespeare's;  and  besides,  it  was  Dr. 
Arbuthnot  who  collected  many  of  the  passages  censured  in 
the  Bathos.  If  Mr.  Hill  only  knew  Pope  the  man!  The 
trouble  was  that  i\Ir.  Hill  did.  ' '  You  can  hardly  conceive 
how  little  either  pique  or  contempt  I  bear  to  any  creature, 
unless  for  immoral  or  dirty  actions."  Criticize  me  as  a 
poet  to  your  heart's  content,  but  spare  my  character  as  an 
honest  man. 

The  "civil  reproach"  Hill  detected  in  the  letter  made 
him  question  whether  Pope  was  not  displeased  at  his 
freedom;    rather  than    displease    him,    he    will   burn   the 

82  June  9,  1738.     CoZ.  of  1751, 


234  AARON    HILL 

essay.^^  To  prove  the  general  neglect  of  propriety,  he 
needed  examples  from  the  living  chief  of  poets:  to  select 
from  dead  authors  only  seemed  a  meanness,  and  to  cite 
from  his  own,  "though  full  enough,  God  knows,  of  ab- 
surdities," would  have  looked  assuming  and  silly.  He  is 
glad  to  hear  that  Arbuthnot  made  the  collection;  yet  it 
was  published  under  Pope's  name,  and  "whatever  a  man 
sets  his  hand  to,  he  ought  first  to  examine  the  truth  of," 
With  a  provoking  air  of  friendly  sincerity,  he  goes  on :  "I 
am  charmed  while  I  hear  you  disclaim  that  propensity  to 
pique  and  contempt,  which,  to  speak  with  the  soul  of  a 
friend,  seems  to  me  the  only  spot  on  your  character.  We 
are  all  of  us,  in  some  lights  or  other,  the  dupes  of  our 
natural  frailties ;  and  when  Mr.  Pope,  with  the  warmth  that 
becomes  a  great  mind,  tells  me  how  far  he  is  from  despising 
defects  in  men's  genius — never  feeling  any  contempt  but 
for  the  dirt  of  their  actions, — I  am  sure  he  says  nothing 
but  what  he  firmly  believes  to  be  true.  ...  In  the  mean- 
time, 'tis  pity  that  a  thinker  so  humane  and  benevolent 
should  indulge  an  ambiguity  in  the  turn  of  his  expression, 
that  scatters  gall  which  his  heart  never  licensed."  He 
admits  his  own  too  great  quickness  in  apprehending  indig- 
nities, and  proclaims  the  desirability  of  free  reproof  between 
friends.  Renewed  assurances^*  of  Pope's  good- will  con- 
vinced him  that  they  must  have  been  born  to  be  lovers; 
"we  are  so  often  and  so  unaccountably  mistaking  one 
another  into  reserves  and  resentments.  ...  In  plain  truth 
and  English,  I  always  did  and  I  still  do  most  affectionately 
esteem  you,  both  as  man  and  as  poet.     And  if  now  and 

83  Hill  to  Pope,  June  17,  1738,  Worlcs,  II,  398.  Hill  actually  did 
burn  the  essay,  in  1739,  during  a  "long  and  melancholy  illness," 
sacrificing  it  "  to  a  suspicion  which  I  apprehended  I  had  grounds  for, 
that  my  design  .  .  .  would  disoblige  where  it  intended  ser\'ice. " 
Works,  II,  217. 

84  June  20,  1738,  Col.  of  1751. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  235 

then,  for  a  start,  I  have  been  put  out  of  humor  with  either, 
I  would  fain  have  you  think  it  was  no  less  your  own  fault 
than  mine."  He  suggests  that  they  rest  the  debate,  and 
"either  resolve  to  let  fall  an  uneonfiding  and  cold  cor- 
respondence, or  much  rather  agree  (if  you  please)  to 
understand  one  another  better  for  the  future."  As  a  proof 
of  his  respect,  he  sends  the  play  of  Caesar  for  Pope's 
criticism.^^ 

Caesar  takes  up  the  greater  part  of  the  remaining  cor- 
respondence, and  makes  it  intolerably  tedious.  Boling- 
broke,  who  came  back  to  England  about  July  of  this  year 
and  stayed  at  Twickenham,  was  honored  no  less  than  Pope 
with  the  disquisitions  upon  Caesar.  And  they  really  read 
the  play  and  the  essay — their  comments  prove  it.^*'  No 
doubt,  they  had  a  little  quiet  fun  at  Hill's  expense,  but 
they  did  not  buy  it  easily.  There  is  a  certain  satisfaction  in 
the  thought  of  Pope  and  Bolingbroke  toiling  over  the  play 
and  the  letters.  When  one  says  the  sentiments  of  the 
tragedy  are  ''noble,  beyond  the  power  of  words"  ;®'^  or  when 
the  other  declares  he  never  met  with  "more  striking  sen- 
tences";** or  M^hen  Mr.  Pope  and  his  noble  friend  doubt 
"whether,  in  some  few  instances,  the  utmost  effort  of 
language  has  not  obscured  the  beauty  and  force  of 
thought,"  one  lingers  thoughtfully  over  the  compliments. 
All  three  are  adepts  in  flattery — Hill  perhaps  the  greatest. 
References  by  HilP"  to  the  involved  state  of  his  affairs 
bring  forth  regrets  from  the  other  two  at  their  inability  to 
raise  his  fortune,  but  since  that  is  impossible,  they  beg  the 
privilege  of  reading  Caesar  once  or  twice  more.^" 

85  June  25,  1738,  Col.  of  1751. 

80  See  letter  of  Pope  to  Hill,  September  12,  1738.    Col.  of  1751. 

87  Bolingbroke  to  Hill,  July  21,  1738.     Worls,  II,  417. 

88  Pope  to  Hill,  July  21,  1738.     Col.  of  1751. 

so  Hill  to  Pope,  August  29,  1738.     WorTiS,  I,  295. 

90  This  was  at  least  the  fifth  reading,  for  Hill,  about  to  send  back 


236  AARON    HILL 

Among  the  last  letters,  chiefly  on  the  theatrical  situation 
and  the  conflicting  claims  of  the  plays  of  Mallet,  Thomson, 
and  Hill,  is  one  that  suggests  why  the  correspondence 
presently  came  to  an  end.  Pope  could  read  and  criticize 
Hill's  plays  and  listen  to  all  he  had  to  say  about  them;  he 
could  bear  with  Hill's  criticism  of  himself;  but  to  receive 
from  him  a  nine-page  analysis  of  Thomson's  Agamemnon, 
to  be  communicated  to  Thomson  by  word  of  mouth,  must 
have  warned  him  of  new  and  unexpected  dangers  in  the 
correspondence.®^  He  promised  to  carry  out  the  commis- 
sion,'^^ but  it  was  not  long  before  the  letters  ceased. 
Perhaps  they  had  proved  too  "unconfiding  and  cold." 
Shortly  after.  Hill  had  a  serious  illness  that  lasted  many 
months  and  would  in  any  case  have  cut  short  his  letter- 
writing. 

Through  their  common  friend,  Mallet,  they  exchanged 
from  time  to  time  polite  assurances  of  affection®^ — an 
affection  on  Hill's  part  merely  polite.  In  the  soothing 
atmosphere  of  Richardson's  sympathy,  his  smouldering 
resentment  against  Pope  at  last  found  vent,  Richardson 
opened  the  way  for  discussion  by  some  rather  ill-natured 
remarks  on  Pope's  abuse  of  his  talent  in  personal  satire.®* 
Charmed  by  these  generous  truths.  Hill  added  a  few  others : 
' '  His  genius  is  not  native  or  inventive ;  it  is  a  verbal  flexi- 
bility of  expressiveness  that  now  and  then  throws  such 
light  on  his  couplets.  He  can  add  a  door  or  a  window  to 
another  man's  house,  but  he  would  build  very  badly  on  a 
new  plan  ...  of  his  own.  ...  As  to  his  Essay  on  Man  .  .  . 

the  corrected  MS.,  mercifully  remembers  that  Pope  has  already  read 
it  four  times  (Hill  to  Pope,  August  29,  1738.     Worlcs,  T,  295). 

91  November  8,  1738.     Worlcs,  I,  308. 

02  Pope  to  HiU.  December  8,  1738. 

9'iHill  to  Mallet,  March  17  and  August  12,  1742  (MS.  quoted  in 
Elwin  and  Courthope's  Pope,  X,  78). 

9-1  January  19,  1744.     Forster  MS. 


hill's  relations  with  pope  237 

you  are  very  kind  to  his  genius,  when  you  consider  that 
as  a  proof  of  it,  when  the  versification,  I  am  afraid,  is  his 
whole,  and  the  matter  and  design  my  lord  Bolingbroke 's. 
And  yet,  there  is  always  here  and  there,  in  whatever  he 
writes,  something  so  expressed  to  bewitch  us,  that  I  cannot, 
for  my  soul,  help  admiring  him. '  '"^  This  unwilling  admis- 
sion is  worth  all  the  rest.  After  Pope 's  death,  Hill  turned 
prophet:^"  "Mr.  Pope,  as  you  with  equal  keenness  and 
propriety  express  it,  is  gone  out.  I  told  a  friend  of  his, 
who  sent  me  the  first  news  of  it,  that  I  was  sorry  for  his 
death,  because  I  doubted  whether  he  would  live  to  recover 
the  accident." 

Presently  he  began  to  plan  the  publication  of  Pope's 
letters — "writ  in  controversial  clashes  between  him  and 
me  on  three  distinct  occasions,  which,  but  that  he  begged 
me  not  to  let  the  public  see,  would  do  him  hurt,  beyond  all 
possible  belief  of  those  who  took  him  for  a  general  genius. ' ' 
Richardson  told  Hill  to  go  ahead,  and  Hill  agreed  that 
Pope  deserved  no  delicacy;  "neither  was  I  under  absolute 
promise;  tho'  he  begged  me  to  conceal  his  letters,  after 
being  stung  into  sense  of  the  gross  openings  he  had  left 
in  'em  against  himself  by  some  not  over  tender  uses  I  drew 
thence  to  punish  a  too  negligent  vanity."^" 

Quite  surprisingly,  the  famous  Essay  on  Propriety, 
burned  in  1739,  reappears  once  more  to  threaten  Pope's 
fame — Hill's  memory  apparently  served  him  as  well  as  a 
manuscript.  The  tract  will  show  that  Pope  knew  nothing 
as  to  plan  or  thought  that  merited  the  name  of  genius, 
though  "in  Figure  and  Expression  ...  he  had  Beauties 
equal  to  the  Best. ' '  But  to  give  a  resistless  demonstration, 
he  has  taken  pains  to  go  through  the  whole  Essay  on  Man, 

95  Hill  to  Eichardson,  1744.    Eichardson 's  Correspondence,  I,  108. 

96  Hill  to  Eichardson,  September  10,  1744,  ibid.,  I,  104. 

9"  See  letters  from  Hill  to  Eichardson,  July  10  and  21,  1746;  and 
from  Eichardson  to  Hill,  July,  1746.     Forster  MS. 


238  AARON    HILL 

"and  without  changing  any  Thought,  or  medling  with  his 
general  Design  or  Mode  of  executing  it,  only  expressed  his 
meanings,  as  he  aimed,  himself,  to  have  expressed  'em." 
His  own  description  of  the  Essay  after  this  audacious  at- 
tempt is  delightfully  appropriate:  "Shall  I,  by  way  of 
curiosity  only,  send  you  his  so  mortified  Essay  on  Manf"^^ 
Richardson  was  inexpressibly  obliged  f°  and  though  he  had 
time  to  read  only  six  pages,  he  was  amazed  at  the  ' '  obvious- 
ness as  well  as  justness  of  the  corrections."  He  passed  the 
Essay  on  to  Speaker  Onslow,  who  tactfully  observed  that 
Hill  undervalued  his  genius  by  giving  anything  of  his  not 
wholly  his.^°« 

The  mortified  Essay  on  Man  never  saw  the  light.  The 
letters  appeared  after  Hill's  death;  and  though  they  have 
done  no  appreciable  hurt  to  Pope's  literary  fame,  they 
have  scarcely  strengthened  his  claim  to  honesty. 

9S  Hill  to  Eichardson,  July  29,  1746.     Forster  MSS. 

99  Eichardson  to  Hill,  August  5,  1746.     Ibid. 

100  Eichardson  to  Hill,  November  7,  1748.     Ibid, 


CHAPTER  VII 


HILL   AND    EICHAEDSON 


In  1738,  Pope  had  been  annoyed  by  an  attack  in  the 
Gazetteer,  then  printed  by  Richardson;  and  Hill,  in  the 
letter  that  closes  his  correspondence  with  Pope,  attempts  to 
absolve  Richardson  from  responsibility:  "I  did  not  recol- 
lect, till  you  told  it  me,  that  the  Gazetteers  were  printed 
by  I\Ir.  Richardson.  I  am  acquainted  with  none  of  their 
authors;  .  .  .  and,  as  to  Mr.  Richardson  himself  (among 
whose  virtues  I  place  it  that  he  knows  and  considers  you 
rightly),  there  should  be  nothing  imputed  to  the  printer, 
which  is  imposed  for,  not  by  him,  on  his  papers,  but  was 
never  impressed  on  his  mind.  I  am  very  much  mistaken  in 
his  character,  or  he  is  a  plain-hearted,  sensible,  and  good- 
natured  honest  man.  I  believe,  when  there  is  anything  put 
into  his  presses  with  a  view  to  such  infamous  slander,  .  .  . 
he  himself  is  the  only  man  wounded:  for  I  think  there  is 
an  openness  in  his  spirit  that  would  even  repel  the  profits 
of  his  business,  when  they  were  to  be  the  consequence  of 
making  war  upon  excellence."^ 

With  Richardson,  whom  he  thus  defends  so  ingeniously, 
Hill  had  been  corresponding  at  intervals  for  over  two  years. 
The  close  of  his  friendship  with  the  great  poet  of  the 
age  thus  coincides  with  the  early  stages  of  that  with  the 
novelist  soon  to  become  famous.  The  two  friendships  offer 
interesting  contrasts.  Pope  and  Hill  loved  each  other  with 
certain  reservations :  they  were  always  on  their  guard  after 
that  Dunciad  episode, — Hill  doubtful  of  Pope's  sincerity 
and,  in  spite  of  himself,  jealous  of  his  popularity;  Pope 

1  February  21,  1739.     Worls,  1,  334. 

239 


240  AARON    HILL 

quite  justly  uneasy  about  his  moral  character,  and  never 
certain  at  what  moment  Hill  would  exhibit  unexpected 
acuteness.  The  relations  of  Hill  and  Richardson  were  of 
quite  a  different  sort:  there  was  no  room  for  jealousy — 
they  were  competing  for  public  favor  in  different  fields; 
they  needed  each  other — Hill's  circumstances  required 
sympathy  and  help,  and  Richardson,  distrustful  of  his 
own  powers,  needed  the  stimulus  of  constant  flattery  and 
encouragement;  their  tastes  were  similar — they  liked  to 
write  long  letters  about  their  works  and  their  nerves  and 
their  medicines,  they  both  had  a  horror  of  Milton's  prose,^ 
and  neither  had  sense  of  humor  enough  to  disturb  the 
other.  In  its  interchange  of  elaborate  compliment  and 
enthusiastic  commendation,  the  correspondence  recalls  the 
Clio  days,  with  the  relative  importance  and  influence  of 
the  writers  reversed.  It  is  the  most  important  so  far  dis- 
cussed :  that  with  Pope  merely  adds  further  confirmation  to 
facts  about  him  accessible  elsewhere ;  that  with  Richardson 
is  essential  for  the  story  of  his  life  during  the  crucial  years 
when  Pamela  and  Clarissa  were  written.  From  March, 
1736,  to  August,  1749,  there  are  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  letters,  preserved  partly  in  Hill's  Works,  partly 
in  the  first  volume  of  Richardson's  Correspondence,  but 
chiefly  in  the  MS.  folios  of  the  Forster  Collection  at  South 
Kensington.^  These  letters  have  already  been  drawn  upon 
in  the  discussion  of  Plill's  projects  and  his  relations  with 
Pope ;  what  remains  to  be  considered  are  the  great  events  of 
Pamela  and  Clarissa,  with  a  background  of  Richardson's 
nervous  tremors.  Hill's  family  misfortunes,  and  his  undy- 
ing literary  aspirations. 

The  acquaintance  perhaps  began  in  business  dealings,  for 

2  Hill  to  Eichardson,  May  29,  1738.     Works,  I,  267. 

3  When  not  otherwise  stated,  the  references  are  to  letters  in  the 
Forster  Collection.  Austin  Dobson,  in  his  Fielding,  1883,  was  the 
first  to  make  use  of  the  Hill  letters  in  the  Forster  MSS. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON"  241 

the  letters  of  1736,  aside  from  the  usual  amenities,  are 
mainly  concerned  with  printing  arrangements  for  Alzira. 
The  next  year  Hill  was  involved  in  financial  difficulties 
that  placed  him  in  the  spring  "under  an  unexpected  obliga- 
tion to  retire  abroad,"*  In  April  he  was  in  Southampton, 
where  the  memory  of  a  visit  twenty  years  before  with  his 
wife  inspired  him  to  verse.^  In  May  he  was  in  Guernsey 
and  in  Jersey,  visiting  on  friendly  terms  with  General 
Fielding  and  Governor  Grahame;*'  and  in  June,  in  Edin- 
burghJ  Less  than  a  year  later,  he  wrote  from  Buxton 
"Wells  in  Derbyshire  that  during  his  solitary  ramble  of 
many  months  he  had  visited  some  of  "our  own  and  neigh- 
boring sea-coasts."^  A  letter  of  July  5,  1738,  from  Gilbert 
Hill,  an  accomplished  beggar,  to  Sir  Hans  Sloane,  declares 
(in  Latin)  that  the  absence  of  his  brother  from  London 
for  more  than  a  year,  "suis  rebus  domestieis  se  bene  non 
habentibus, "  has  increased  his  own  troubles.^  Hill's  affairs 
must  have  straightened  themselves  out  to  some  extent 
shortly  afterwards,  for  at  the  end  of  July  he  was  planning 
to  settle  outside  of  London,  after  selling  the  best  part  of  a 
too  little  fortune  ;^°  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  he  went 
with  his  daughters  to  live  at  Plaistow,  in  Essex,  east  of 
London.  Plaistow  was  at  the  time  a  "pleasant  rural  vil- 
lage," though  flat  and  marshy,  "  'with  roomy  old  houses 
and  large  gardens,  famous  like  Banstead  Down  for  its 
mutton.'  "^^  Hill  expected  to  make  it  famous  for  its  vine- 
yards.    From  1739,  Richardson  spent  much  of  his  time  at 

4  Hill  to  Kichardson,  October,  1737.     Eichardson's  Correspondence, 
1,11. 

5  Alone  in  an  Inn  at  Southampton,  JVorls,  III,  331. 

6  Worl-s,  1754  ed.,  I,  332-333. 

7  Hill  to  Urania  Hill,  June  23,  1737.     JVorls,  1754  ed.,  I,  335. 

8  Hill  to  Pope,  May  11,  1738.     Worls,  I,  248. 

9  Sloane  MSS.  4055.  f.  347. 

10  Hill  to  Pope,  July  31,  1738.     Worls,  I,  290. 

11  Austin  Dobson :  Hichardson,  66. 
17 


242  AARON    HILL 

North  End,  near  Hammersmith  turnpike;  and  as  it  was 
evidently  no  easy  matter  to  get  from  Plaistow  in  the  east 
to  Hammersmith  in  the  west,  Hill  and  Richardson  had  to 
carry  on  their  intercourse  chiefly  by  letter.^- 

There  are  a  few  pleasant  pictures  of  the  Plaistow  home, — 
''a  quiet,  and  not  quite  unpleasant  solitude;  a  place  that 
seems  to  have  been  only  formed  for  books,  and  meditation, 
and  the  Muses.  "^^  Astraea  Hill  tries  to  persuade  Mrs. 
Richardson  to  visit  them:^^  "not  that  we  have,  here,  any 
beauties  to  boast  of,  except  those  of  Nature  and  Innocence, 
and  those,  too,  are  confined  to  the  Garden.  Our  House  is 
too  Old,  and  we  ourselves  are  too  New,  to  be  worth  the 
Regard  of  the  Curious.  But  without  doors,  I  hope,  we  can 
make  you  Amends:  for  there  we  have  Silence,  and  Water, 
and  Wood  enough,  and  Vineyards,  and  Rockwork,  and  a 
good  deal  of  outlet  all  around  us.  We  have  also  one  nobler 
Delight,  that  of  changing  deserts  into  groves  .  .  .  daily  em- 
ploying ourselves  in  contriving  new  Views,  and  new  Walks, 
and  new  Grottos. '  '^^ 

But  pleasant  glimpses  are  rare.  In  the  spring  of  1739, 
w^hile  setting  out  his  vines,  Hill  was  "surprised  by  an 
ague ' ' ;  and  though  from  time  to  time  in  the  following 

12  Lord  Hervey  writes  (November  27,  1736)  of  the  road  between 
Kensington  and  St.  James  that  it  had  "grown  so  infamously  bad, 
that  we  live  here  in  the  same  solitude  as  we  should  do  if  cast  on  a 
rock  in  the  middle  of  the  ocean,  and  all  the  Londoners  tell  us  there 
is  between  them  and  us  a  great  impassable  gulf  of  mud. ' '  (Memoirs 
of  the  Eeign  of  George  II,  ed.  J.  W.  Croker,  1884,  II,  362,  n.  9.) 

13  Hill  to  Eichardson,  January,  1743.     Eiehardson's  Corres.,  I,  88. 
1*  December  17,  1740. 

15  The  young  ladies  went  angling  for  carp,  like  Pamela;  and  once, 
under  the  spell  of  her  sweet  compassion,  they  saved  the  lives  of  a  bag- 
ful of  eels  by  throwing  them  into  the  carp  pond;  the  ungrateful 
' '  reptile  rascals ' '  ate  the  carp,  and  had  to  be  drawn  out  of  the  pond 
with  garden  rakes  by  the  Misses  Hill,  to  the  great  amusement  of  their 
father   (Hill  to  Eichardson,  November  25,  1748). 


HILL  AND  RICHARDSON  243 

months  he  speaks  of  an  improvement  or  a  relapse,  the 
effects  of  this  illness  lasted  for  more  than  a  year.  Agues 
continued  to  surprise  the  whole  family.  "My  daughters 
have  been  sensible  some  time,"  he  writes  in  1742  (Feb- 
ruary 25),  "that  Plaistow  has  a  moist,  malignant  Air,  that 
makes  severe  and  lasting  Agues  a  sure  consequence  of  their 
indulging  a  sweet  evening  Walk,  or  disregarding  Change 
of  "Wind  to  the  cold  quarters."  He  describes  himself,  a 
few  months  later,  as  shrinking  away  in  flesh  and  spirit, 
with  neither  strength  nor  appetite,  and  all  the  family  in  the 
same  condition,  or  just  recovered  from  it;  he  has  lost  a 
gardener  of  unusual  accomplishments,  and  has,  in  fact, 
seen  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  ' '  this  unlucky  and  ill-chosen 
place"  buried.^*'  Once,  Astraea's  languor  was  overcome 
by  the  "animated  ideas"  of  Clarissa,'^"  but  only  such  extra- 
ordinary remedies  were  effective. 

Yet  Hill  was  much  more  concerned  about  the  tremors  of 
Richardson  than  the  agues  of  his  own  household.  For  his 
benefit,  he  recalls  the  sweating-tent  (no  bigger  than  a  hoop- 
skirt)  which  he  had  seen  in  Turkey  and  Persia;  he  dis- 
cusses hot  and  cold  baths  and  their  effects  on  different 
"habits"  of  body;  the  Bath  waters  and  the  Scarborough 
waters ;  vinegar  for  the  gout ;  and  large  doses  of  coffee  for 
Richardson's  dizziness.  The  latter  tried  the  coffee,  but 
unfortunately  found  his  dizziness  increase  under  the  treat- 
ment. Bishop  Berkeley's  tar- water  is  of  "infinite  extent 
in  its  virtue,"  if  made  with  water  in  which  oak  shavings 
have  been  boiled.^^     Though  he  prescribed  with  a  blithe 

16  October  24,  1742.     Richardson's  Corres.,  I,  80. 

1"  December,  1747. 

18  This  oak-tincture  is  responsible  for  a  rare  touch  of  levity:  Hill, 
suddenly  realizing  the  absurdity  of  a  phrase  wishing  health  to  all  the 
pretty  shooting  branches  of  his  friend's  family,  adds,  "How  natural 
the  step,  from  such  a  wooden  Metaphor,  to  put  you  in  mind  of  your 
Oak-Tincture"  (October  25,  1746). 


244  AARON    HILL 

assurance,  Hill  knew  little  of  the  condition  of  his  patient ; 
for  when  he  saw  him  for  the  first  time  after  some  years,  he 
was  surprised  and  touched  "with  an  Extremity  of  grief,  to 
mark  the  shakings  of  so  strong  a  hand."^^  Richardson,  in 
his  turn,  recommended  the  smoky  air  of  London  and  asses' 
milk,  and  urged  the  Hills  at  one  time  to  take  possession  of 
North  End  in  the  absence  of  his  own  family.^" 

It  was  not  willingly  that  the  Hills  remained  in  what 
Richardson  called  "that  terrible  marsh-pit."  In  1742 
(February  25),  they  had  two  other  places  in  mind  nearer 
London ;  and  in  July  of  the  same  year.  Hill  had  been  look- 
ing at. a  little  estate  to  the  north.  In  November,  1744,  they 
were  planning  to  leave  Plaistow  the  next  spring ;  and  again 
in  1747  (December  3),  they  limited  their  stay  to  one 
summer  more.  The  obstacle  in  the  way  seems  to  have  been 
a  long-drawn-out  Chancery  suit.  In  the  midst  of  his 
illness  in  1739,  Hill  was  compelled  to  go  to  town  "to  settle 
accounts  with  just  such  a  tedious  and  slow-paced  executor 
as  I  would  wish  to  your  enemy's  purposes."-^  He  returned 
to  Essex  in  a  very  melancholy  frame  of  mind,  his  nerves 
shaken  by  his  anger  at  the  "Injustice  and  Tricks  of  the 
Low-hearted."-^  The  person  responsible  for  the  trouble 
figures  in  the  letters  as  "a  little  Villain,  whom  the  Defect 
(or  rather  slowness  of  Pace  in  the  Helps)  of  our  Laws  has 
impowered  to  perplex  my  Affairs,"  and  as  "a  vile  wretch, 
who  has  trifled  with  me  these  four  or  five  years  past,  in 

19  February,  1749. 

20  October  29,  1742.  Corres.,  1,  83.  For  all  these  medical  discus- 
sions, the  correspondence  is  not  so  lugubrious  as  that  of  Richardson 
and  Dr.  Young.  Hill  notes  that  people  die  at  Plaistow,  but  he  does 
not,  like  Young,  ring  their  knells:  "as  I  was  going  to  fold  my  letter, 
I  heard  a  second  knell"  (Eichardson's  Corres.,  II,  10). 

21  Hill  to  Richardson,  December  19,  1739.  Richardson 's  Corres.,  I, 
33. 

22  December  23,  1739. 


HILL   AND  RICHARDSON  245 

matters  of  the  utmost  importance.  "^^  Between  1744  and 
1746,  the  little  villain  gives  place  to  a  still  more  trouble- 
some law-suit;  and  "dull  and  turbulent  Law  Processes" 
were  in  full  swing  by  July  21,  1746,  when  Hill  and  his 
daughters  were  awaiting  "the  issue  of  the  Suit  we  have 
been  forc'd  into,  by  One  of  their  Trustees,  upon  the  Other's 
death,  in  great  arrears  to  us — and  his  own  Circumstances 
much  entangled."-*  Perhaps  money  from  his  wife's  family 
was  left  in  trust  for  his  daughters ;  and  possibly  the  trustee 
who  died  in  debt  was  the  vile  wretch  of  a  few  years  before.^' 
From  1746  until  his  death.  Hill  vainly  expected  each  term 
to  see  the  end  of  this  suit.-''  He  grew  convinced  that  "the 
Pit  poor  Joseph  was  cast  into  was  a  mouse-hole  in  Com- 
parison with  John  Bull's  bottomless  one";-''  and  as  late  as 
January,  1749,  he  had  a  "huge  paltry  Barricade  of 
Chancery  Lumber  thrown  up  .  .  .  with  a  long  vile  Per- 
plexity of  stamped  accounts  to  disentangle ;  which  the  most 
persisting  Courage  in  the  World  would  stagger  at  assault- 
ing." 

There  were  other  troubles  besides  this  of  the  law-suit. 
In  May,  1739,  "an  unhappy  fugitive"  from  the  family 
(perhaps  a  nephew,  from  the  nature  of  the  allusions)  died 
under  circumstances  that  pointed  to  murder,  but  proved 
to    be   suicide,    as   Hill   told   Richardson   in    confidence.^^ 

23  January  8,  1740.     Eichardson 's  Corres.,  I,  37. 

24  July  10,  1746.     He  made  some  application  early  in  1744  (Corres.. 

I,  108). 

25  As  no  names  are  mentioned  by  Hill  and  the  nature  of  the  action  is 
only  vaguely  indicated,  the  tracing  of  the  suit  is  more  difficult  than 
important.  A  search  through  the  lists  of  Chancery  suits  for  1744- 
1746,  with  the  names  of  Hill  and  his  daughters  as  clues,  brought  no 
result. 

26  See,  for  instance,  his  letters  of  December  3,  1747,  and  January 

II,  1749. 

27  May  5,  1748. 

28  Eichardson  's  Corres.,  I,  24. 


246  AARON    HILL 

Within  a  few  months,  his  daughter  Urania,  Thomson's 
"young  darling  of  the  Muses, "^'^  made  a  rash  love-match 
with  a  Mr.  Johnson,  whom  after  his  death,  seven  years 
later.  Hill  described  as  an  honest,  modest  man.  But  at  the 
time  Hill  was  much  offended,  for  in  mentioning  his 
daughters  he  adds,  "the  only  two  of  'em,  I  mean,  whom  I 
now  own  as  such.  "^^  Mr.  Johnson  heedlessly  ran  through 
a  good  fortune  of  his  own  and  a  better  of  his  wife's,  before 
he  grew  melancholy  and  died,  not  having  patience,  Hill 
wrote,  to  await  the  issue  of  the  law-suit  that  was  to  relieve 
the  difficulties  of  the  whole  family.^^  Perhaps  he  was  wise. 
Hill's  only  son  proved  another  source  of  acute  anxiety. 
His  "juvenile  weaknesses"  were  causing  so  much  concern 
in  April,  1741,  that  his  father  feared  him  incapable  of 
* '  the  solid,  or  serious,  Turn  of  Mind ;  whether  in  Learning, 
or  Business."^-  There  are  dark  hints  of  the  nature  of  his 
performances  in  a  letter  of  July  29,  of  that  year:  "I  fear, 
vain,  application  to  prevent  the  ruin  of  a  youth,  who  being 
born  without  an  aptitude  to  think,  was  destined  to  be  led 
away  by  every  Light  Temptation ;  and  who,  in  undesigned, 
and  unfelt.  Contradiction  to  the  bias  of  a  weak  good 
Nature,  takes  hardly  any  steps,  but  such  as  tend  the 
shortest  and  dirtiest  way  to  a  Waste  and  Infamy.  Imagine 
for  us,  from  this  general  Hint  of  an  Affliction  that  has 
many  branches."  In  reply  to  Richardson's  hesitating  in- 
quiry, five  years  later,  after  a  "young  too  near  male  rela- 
tion," Hill  writes  that,  tliough  he  does  not  see  him  for 
many  months  together,  he  hears  of  him  too  many  ways,  and 
unhappily  almost  every  way.  He  has  gone  through  a  con- 
siderable fortune,  weakly  left  to  his  early  management  by 
"an  unthinking  grandmother,"  and  is  living  dissolutely 

29  Thomson  to  Hill,  June  11,  1726.     Col.  of  1751. 

30  September  27,  1739. 

31  July  10,  1746. 

32  Letter  of  April  13. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  247 

in  London;  Hill  tries  to  hope  that  he  is  not  without  an 
inclination  to  a  "slow  irresolute  repentance. "^^ 

All  these  misfortunes  from  climate,  law-suits,  and  unde- 
sirable relations,  might  well  have  robbed  Hill  of  any  spirit 
for  literature.  Yet,  during  the  dozen  years  at  Plaistow, 
he  wrote  The  Fanciad,  The  Impartial,  The  Religion  of 
Reason,  The  Art  of  Acting,  Merope,  tracts  on  war  and  on 
agriculture  (unpublished),  and  some  versions  of  the  odes 
of  Horace;^*  he  also  prepared  Gideon  for  the  press,  three 
books  being  published  with  elaborate  notes ;  and  he  planned 
another  enterprise  that  connects  him  once  more  with 
Mallet's  career. 

The  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  who  died  in  October,  1744, 
bequeathed  a  thousand  pounds  to  Mallet  and  Glover,  if 
they  would  undertake  a  biography  of  the  great  Duke. 
Glover  declined,  but  Mallet  accepted.  Now  a  life  of  the 
Duke  was  one  of  Hill's  projects.  His  Fanciad,  published 
in  IMay,  1743,  was  written  to  stir  up  the  Marlborough 
family  to  a  realization  of  the  need  of  an  adequate  biog- 
raphy;^^ and  it  might  well  have  stirred  them  somewhat,  if 
they  had  read  it.^°     He  rather  expected  it  to  fall  somehow 

33  October  25,  1746. 

34  To  be  printed  in  the  Daily  Gazetteer,  with  which  Richardson  had 
some  connection  till  shortly  before  June,  1746;  a  letter  from  Hill  of 
June  13  comments  on  Richardson's  reasons  for  dropping  it. 

35  Hill  to  Richardson,  April  2,  1743.     Corres.,  1,  89. 

36  The  scene  opens  in  the  library  of  the  present  Duke,  who  is 
startled  first  by  the  apparition  of  the  great  general^  who  discusses 
the  foreign  situation,  and  then  by  the  Fury  Faction,  who  proclaims 
from  innumerable  tongues  the  troubles  at  home.  From  the  Fury  he 
is  snatched  up  into  the  chariot  of  Fancy,  where  he  finds  Truth, 
forced  to  borrow  charms  from  Fancy  in  an  age  so  indifferent  to  her 
unadorned  perfection.  The  chariot  conveys  them  to  the  genius  of 
Britain,  who  arises  from  the  sea  to  tell  them,  among  other  things, 
how  Marlborough,  while  conversing  with  Michael  in  heaven  on  war- 
like themes,  with  Caesar  as  an  attentive  listener,  heard  of  certain 
designs  of  France  against  England,  and  promptly  frustrated  them 


248  AARON    HILL 

into  their  hands,  though  he  would  not  send  it  himself,  lest 
his  motive  might  appear  interested.^^  Richardson  hastened 
to  assure  him  that  his  was  the  hand  fittest  for  the  his- 
torian's task.^^  This  Hill  denied;  but  he  disclosed  a  plan 
to  write  an  essay  covering  the  events  of  one  year  (that  of 
the  Blenheim  campaign),  just  to  prove  the  inadequacy  of 
previous  histories,  and  to  suggest  how  much  better  still  the 
work  could  be  done  with  the  aid  of  the  private  family 
memoirs.^®  Then  Richardson  reported*"  that  the  Duchess 
was  said  to  be  at  work  digesting  these  papers  with  the 
assistance  of  Mr.  Hooke;  but  through  the  booksellers  he 
presently  learned  that  the  Duchess  was  less  busy  than  he 
supposed.*^ 

In  June,  Hill  sent  the  Fanciad  to  Mallet,  in  response  to 
an  inquiry  how  he  was  spending  his  leisure,  and  asked  him 
to  find  out,  if  possible,  from  the  Duchess,  whether  there 
was  material  enough  for  a  life.  "Don't  imagine  me  so 
vain  to  think  myself  half  qualified  for  such  a  task  as  the 
Duke's  history.  I  did  but  wish  to  see  some  willing  under- 
taker equal  to  it."*^  The  letter  arranges  for  a  meeting  the 
next  Tuesday  at  St.  Paul's  Coffee  House.     The  result  of 

by  despatching  a  wily  spirit  to  lure  Fleury's  thoughts  to  trade;  as 
interest  in  trade  meant  decline  in  martial  vigor,  England  was  spared 
a  dangerous  war.  After  throwing  a  new  light  on  history  by  this 
masterpiece  of  explanation,  the  Genius  sheds  three  tears,  sighs  three 
times,  and  sinks  into  the  sea.  Fancy  follows  unexpectedly,  nearly 
drowning  her  passengers,  but  Truth  snatches  the  reins  just  in  time 
and  drives  the  young  duke  home.  In  a  final  exhortation,  she  points 
out  to  him  his  duty  of  seeing  that  his  noble  ancestor  is  placed  in  a 
proper  light  before  the  world — unless  the  task  is  made  unnecessary  by 
the  Duchess,  so  conspicuous  for  her  noble  taste  of  glory. 

37  Hill  to  Richardson,  April  2,  1743.     Corres.,  I. 

ssEichardson  to  Hill,  April  2,  1743. 

39  Hill  to  Richardson,  April  5,  1743.     Corres.,  I,  93. 

40  April   7,  1743. 

41  Hill  to  Richardson,  April  25,  1743. 

42  Hill  to  Mallet,  June  2,  1743.     Works,  II,  229. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  249 

the  meeting  can  be  partly  conjectured  from  what  happened 
later.  Probably  Mallet  did  become  interested  in  Hill's  idea. 
By  October  20,  he  had  some  new  engagement,  about  which 
Hill  was  very  curious;  it  may  or  may  not  have  been  con- 
nected with  the  Duke's  life.  Hill  himself  was  at  work  upon 
another  poem  by  the  following  spring.  But  in  December, 
1744,  he  wrote  a  "long  and  curious"  letter  to  Mallet  on  the 
provision  in  the  Duchess's  will.*^  Mallet  made  no  satis- 
factory reply;  and  Hill  talked  the  matter  over  with 
Richardson :  ' '  By  your  mentioning  the  visit  from  our 
Strand  Green  Friend  [Mallet],  you  just  put  me  on  remem- 
bering to  ask  you,  whether  he  proceeds  upon  the  Marlboro' 
History?  I  hope  he  don't.  For  tho'  he  was  the  person 
whom  I  aim'd  to  hint  to  the  old  Duchess,  in  the  Fanciad, 
yet  I  make  no  Scruple  to  confess,  I  looked  upon  the  poor 
consideration  she  assigned  him  for  it,  and  her  odd  and  half 
contemptuous  method  of  expressing  that  assignment,  as  so 
unequivalent,  to  all  the  Genius,  Labour,  Skill,  and  many 
years'  Attention,  due  to  such  a  Work,  if  rightly  executed, 
that  I  used  the  strongest  Arguments  I  could  produce,  with 
purpose  to  dissuade  him;  .  .  .  and  he  promised  me  his 
w^eighed  and  future  Sentiments  upon  this  Subject.  But 
continues  silent  on  it.  ...  I  am  afraid  he  lets  himself  be 
tempted — tho'  the  Lady  was  a  little  past  enchantment,  and 
her  Apple  was  both  Crabb  and  Windfall."**  Richardson 
replied  that  Mallet  was  going  on,  and  had  made  great 
progress;  he  expected  his  reward  in  the  work  itself — an 
unusually  disinterested  point  of  view  for  Mallet  !*^  In  the 
letters,  chiefly  of  gossip  and  compliment,  between  Mallet 
and  Hill  during  the  years  1746  to  1749 — the  two  families 
were  evidently  on  pleasant  calling  terms, — Hill  usually 
refers  to  his  friend  as  the  Duke's  historian,  and  once  ex- 

43  Hist.  MS.  Comni.,  Appendix  to  9tli  Eeport,  476. 

44  October  25,  1746. 

45  October  29,  1746. 


250  AARON    HILL 

presses  his  longing  to  see  a  Marlborough's  face  in  the  glass 
Mallet  is  silvering  for  it.**'  But  neither  Hill  nor  anyone 
else  ever  saw  it. 

In  practically  all  of  Hill's  work  published  after  1736, 
Richardson  was  concerned  as  printer.  But  no  printer  not 
also  a  friend  and  a  very  generous  one  would  have  conferred 
so  many  favors  as  he  did.  The  nature  of  these  obligations 
is  suggested  in  the  following  acknowledgment  from  Hill  :*^ 
"What  you  have  done,  in  relation  to  the  bills  and  the 
advertisements  [of  Alzira],  at  once  obliges  and  confounds 
me — I  mean  the  Gracefulness  and  Generosity  of  your 
Spirit,  in  the  Intention. — For  I  do,  and  must,  consider 
myself  as  still  undischarged,  in  that  particular,  and  only 
more  your  debtor  from  the  disposition  you  have  shown  to 
remit  the  obligation."  Another  letter*^  acknowledges  the 
receipt  of  a  hundred  pounds,  sent  in  a  "surprisingly" 
obliging  manner,  and  other  instances  might  be  quoted.  In 
addition  to  these  services,  Richardson  gave  advice  about 
dedications,  titles,  favorable  times  for  publication,  and  the 
like.*^  Only  twice  did  anything  threaten  interruption  of 
these  amicable  relations.  Once,  when  slightly  ruffled  by  a 
comment  of  Hill's  upon  Clarissa,  Richardson  writes  with 
elaborate  politeness  that  if  any  other  printer  (Watts  or 
Draper,  for  instance)  has  offered  to  publish  either  of 
Hill's  charming  dramatic  pieces,  no  generous  intentions  to 
himself  must  stand  in  the  way.  Hill's  reply  betrays  per- 
plexity, as  neither  Watts  nor  Draper  had  expressed  any 
desire  to  print  his  plays.^°  The  misunderstanding  finally 
passed  off,  without  the  interposition  of  any  other  printer. 

40  mU  to  Mallet,  July  28,  1748.     Works,  II,  334. 

47  July  5,  1736. 

48  November,  1746.     Corres.,  1,  118. 

49  His  remonstrances  induced  Hill  to  alter  the  extraordinary  title 
Go  to  Bed,  Tom,  to  The  Fanciad. 

50 Richardson  to  Hill,  January  5,  1747,  and  Hill's  reply  January  23. 


HILL   AND    RICHARDSON  251 

Again,  Richardson,  hard-pressed  by  his  work  for  the  House 
of  Commons,  turned  Gideon  over  to  another  press;  and 
Hill,  hearing  nothing  for  some  time  either  of  his  poem 
or  of  his  friend,  writes  that  he  is  mortified  to  find  Richard- 
son so  inattentive  to  Gideon. ^^  Richardson  in  his  reply 
next  day  refers  feelingly  to  the  business  that  has  kept  him 
at  work  from  five  in  the  morning  to  eleven  at  night;  if 
Gideon  goes  on  slowly,  Clarissa,  out  of  print  for  two 
months,  does  not  go  on  at  all. 

Hill  did  not  depend  entirely  on  the  outcome  of  his  law- 
suit for  the  means  to  discharge  his  obligations  to  Richard- 
son. As  far  back  as  December  23,  1739,  he  planned  to 
assign  to  him  a  collection  of  old  and  new  pieces,  but  was 
deterred  by  the  very  just  fear  that  they  would  prove 
"chargeable  children."  "I  therefore  think,"  he  writes,^^ 
' '  that  I  ought  not  only  to  offer  it  to  you  as  a  present,  which 
I  heartily  wish  might  be  worth  your  acceptance;  but,  in 
order  to  render  it  more  certainly  such,  to  be  myself  at  the 
charge  of  your  printing  and  publishing  it."  It  was  a 
discouragement  to  the  scheme  of  a  collection  that  the  sepa- 
rate poems  made  so  little  headway.^^  In  1748,  Hill  was 
still  engaged  in  transcribing  and  retranscribing  his  works, 
and  worrying  over  his  indebtedness  to  Richardson.^*  Not 
that  Richardson  asked  repayment:  "You  are  so  very 
earnest,"  he  wrote  in  1748,  "about  transferring  to  me  the 
copyright  to  all  your  works,  that  I  will  only  say,  that  that 
point  must  be  left  to  the  future  issues  of  things.  But  I 
will  keep  account.  ...  It  is  therefore  time  enough  to  think 
of  the  blank  receipt  you  have  had  the  goodness  to  send  me 

51  May  9,  1749.     Eichardson  printed  the  Journals  of  the  House. 

52  January  8,  1740.     Corres.,  I,  37. 

53  From  a  letter  from  Eichardson  of  July  1,  1746,  we  learn  that  the 
collection  was  to  consist  of  two  volumes  of  poetry,  and  two  entitled 
Focal  Shades, — original  letters,  mixed  with  a  few  Provipters. 

54  Hill  to  Eichardson,  May  5^  1748. 


252  AARON    HILL 

to  fill  up."'^  When  in  January,  1749,  Mallet  secured  from 
Millar  the  publisher  a  proposal  for  printing  Merope,  Hill 
was  loth  to  accept  it,  because  it  involved  the  copyright  that 
he  always  considered  Richardson's,  Richardson  appeared 
willing  to  forego  that  advantage, — in  fact,  he  had  been 
partly  instrumental  in  persuading  Millar  to  make  the  offer ; 
for  Millar  had  a  large  business  and  the  means  of  promoting 
the  sale  of  what  he  engaged  in.  As  to  copyright,  "You 
must  excuse  me.  Sir,  but  I  cannot  upon  any  Account,  think 
of  accepting  of  your  generous  present  of  that  Kind."^"  It 
is  interesting  that  Richardson  planned  to  return  Hill's 
favor  by  bequeathing  his  own  writings  to  his  ' '  friendly  care 
and  judgment."" 

Hill  never  really  lost  faith  that  his  works  would  in  the 
end  be  accepted  by  the  public,  and  prove  profitable  to  some- 
one— preferably  Richardson,  Yet  the  successive  shocks 
administered  by  a  callous  public  during  these  years 
gradually  forced  him  into  that  last  refuge  of  the  unsuc- 
cessful author, — contempt  of  his  age,  Richardson  tried  to 
blame  the  cold  reception  of  The  Religion  of  Reason  (1746) 
on  the  popular  absorption  in  political  events.  But  it  is 
unnecessary  to  look  beyond  the  poem  itself — by  no  means 
devoid  of  merit — for  an  explanation  of  the  public  indif- 
ference. Interest  in  deistic  ideas  had  been  declining  since 
Tindal's  death;  and  deism  in  blank  verse, — belated  echoes 
of  the  attacks  on  a  monopoly  of  revelation,  on  the  pride 
and  stubbornness  of  the  favored  Jews,  on  the  fanaticism 
that  left  the  negroes  or  the  Chinese  or  the  Hindus  out  of 
the  scheme  of  salvation, — could  scarcely  arrest  attention.^^ 

55  October  27,  1748.     Corres.,  I,  119. 

5e  Eichardson  to  Hill,  January  12,  1749. 

57  Eichardson  to  Hill,  July  24,  1744.     Corres.,  1,  102. 

58  That  Hill  had  some  sympathy  with  deism  is  quite  natural ;  it 
took  in  all  races  and  all  worlds;  and  to  Hill  narrow  and  confined 
ideas   in  religion  would   be   as   repugnant   as  in   trade.     There   are 


HILL   AND   RICH^tRDSON  253 

Hill,  however,  caught  at  the  friendly  explanation:  "If  it 
proves  otherwise,  I  must  either  have  no  power  of  thinking 
at  all,  or  must  think  of  this  age  very  despicably, '  '^^ 

Perhaps  Richardson  grew  tired  of  hearing  censure  of  the 
age  that  approved  of  him ;  for  he  gently  hinted  to  Hill  at 
last  that  genius  must  try  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  time 
it  lives  in,  "since  works  published  in  this  age  must  take 
root  in  it  to  flourish  in  the  next."  The  taste  of  the  world, 
he  goes  on,  has  altered  since  Hill  withdrew  from  it; 
"your  writings  require  thought  to  read  .  ,  .  and  the  world 
has  no  thought  to  bestow."  It  wants  simplicity;  it  does 
not  want  to  dig  for  jewels  in  a  mine.  "Your  sentiments, 
even  they  will  have  it  who  allow  them  to  be  noble,  are  too 
munificently  adorned.  .  .  .  And  yet,  for  my  own  part,  I 
am  convinced  that  the  fault  lies  in  that  indolent  .  .  . 
world.  "^*'  Hill  took  the  friendly  plainness  of  the  letter 
well,  but  did  not  back  down  from  his  position.  He  knew 
his  writings  were  unpopular — he  always  expected  them  to 
be  so ;  "  nor  shall  I  live  to  see  them  in  another  light.  But 
there  will  rise  a  time  in  which  they  will  be  seen  in  a  far 
different  one ;  I  know  it,  on  a  surer  hope  than  that  of 
vanity."  As  for  simplicity — no  one  loves  simplicity  more 
than  he ;  but  he  is  apparently  the  only  one  who  understands 

good  lines  in  the  poem^  and  fewer  absurdities  than  usual;  for 
example : 

"This  dim  ball 
That  day  by  day  rolls  round  its  eyeless  bulk." 
"Where  the  broad  sea,  scarce  heard,  rolls  murmuring  in." 
"Turn  thy  sight  eastward,  o'er  the  time-hushed  plains, 
Xow  graves  of  vanished  empire. ' ' 

Hill  concludes  by  deciding  to  doubt  all  faiths,  "undoubting  God," 
until 

"Death  opening  Truth's  barred  gate,  'tis  time  to  see 
God's  meanings,  in  the  light  his  presence  lends." 
59  September  15,  1746. 
CO  October  27,  1748.     Corres.,  I,  119. 


254  AARON    HILL 

its  true  meaning,  and  Kichardson  the  only  one  who  ex- 
emplifies it  in  the  present  age.  The  "dim  humble 
wretches"  who  cry  about  it  mean  "the  unjogging  slide  of 
something  .  .  .  that  paces  their  lame  understanding  smoothly 
on,  and  does  not  shake  it  out  of  a  composure  necessary  to 
its  weakness. "  Simplicity  is  merely  a  weaker  word  for 
propriety;  "everything  is  simple,  that  has  nothing  added 
contrary  to  its  own  quality ;  and  everything  unsimple,  that 
has  foreign  and  unnatural  annexions.  If  a  camel  were  to 
be  described,  it  might  be  done  with  all  the  requisite 
simplicity,  however  loftily  the  poet  should  express  the 
beast's  raised  neck,  majestic  pace,  and  venerable  counte- 
nance. But  from  the  moment  he  began  to  mention  claws 
and  courage,  as  the  camel's  attributes,  his  deviation  from 
the  rules  of  true  simplicity  would  justly  call  for  the  re- 
proach of  too  magnificently  adorned;  not  because  camels 
ought  not  to  be  spoken  of  magnificently,  but  because 
there  should  not  be  assigned  them  a  magnificence  repugnant 
to  their  nature.""^  All  quite  true;  but  so  far  as  it  applies 
to  Hill,  the  difficulty  is  not  that  he  supplies  his  camels 
with  claws — it  is  his  astonishing  way  of  picturing  their 
humps.^" 

Kichardson  had  no  reason  for  despising  an  age  in  which 
his  own  writings  were  taking  root,  and  Hill  could  not  deny 
that  the  age  showed  good  taste  in  appreciating  work  of 
w^hich  he  approved  enthusiastically.  Richardson's  novels 
provide  the  most  cheerful  and  entertaining  topic  in  the 
correspondence. 

On  December  8,  1740,  Richardson,  without  declaring 
himself  the  author,  sent  the  two  volumes  of  Pamela  to  be- 
guile  the  young  ladies  at  Plaistow   in   a  tedious   winter 

Gi  November  2,  1748.     Corres.,  I,  124. 

62  Even  in  a  literal  sense:   see  Gideon,  book  II,  stanza  21 — 
"Next,  loaded  high,  the  bunchy  camels  go, 
Stepping,  with  straight  raised  neck,  sublimely  slow. ' ' 


HILL   AND    RICHARDSON  255 

hour.*'^  "The  book  was  published  many  months  before  I 
saw  or  heard  of  it,"  wrote  Hill  to  Mallet,  assuring  him 
that  he  had  no  share  in  the  authorship  of  "that  delightful 
nursery  of  virtues, "  "  and  when  he  sent  it  me  ...  it  came 
without  the  smallest  hint  that  it  was  his,  and  with  a  grave 
apology,  as  for  a  trifle  of  too  light  a  species.  I  found  out 
whose  it  was,  by  the  resembling  turn  of  Pamela's  expres- 
sions, weighed  with  some  which  I  had  noted  as  peculiar  in 
his  letters.  Yet  very  loth  he  was  a  long  time  to  confess  it. ' ' 
He  adds — and  he  was  a  true  prophet  for  once — "I  am 
much  mistaken  in  the  promise  of  his  genius,  or  Pamela  .  .  . 
is  but  the  dawning  of  the  day  he  is  to  give  us.  "°*  With 
Eichardson  Hill  at  first  pretended  ignorance,  and  urged 
him  to  name  the  author  of  the  "powerful  little  piece,"  in 
a  fervid  letter  included  among  the  "greasy  compliments  " 
later  printed  in  the  introduction  to  the  second  edition  of 
Pamela.^^  Richardson  was,  in  fact,  very  much  delighted 
with  the  unqualified  approbation  of  the  Hill  family.  How 
could  he  name  the  author  after  such  praise  ?  He  was  more 
eifusive  than  he  quite  approved  later,  when,  in  going  over 
the  copies  of  his  letters,  he  scratched  out  some  expressions 
relating  to  Hill's  godlike  mind  and  matchless  genius.*"' 

Hill's  reply  overflowed  with  enthusiasm.''^  Part  of  it 
contains  a  new  and  very  insinuating  form  of  flattery,  de- 
scribing the  effect  of  Pamela  on  a  six-year-old  child  in  the 
family — "a  pretty,  gentle,  gay-spirited"  boy,  a  poor 
soldier 's  son,  whom  the  Hills  seem  to  have  adopted.     ' '  The 

63  Pamela  was  published  in  November. 
61  January  23,  1741.     TForf-s,  II,  158. 

65  December  17,  1740.  Corres.,  1,  53.  The  characterization  of 
this  and  other  compliments  was  made  by  one  of  Eichardson 's  critics 
(February  7,  1741.     Forster  MSS.  Folio  XVI). 

66  Eichardson  to  Hill,  December  22,  1740. 

6'  Eichardson  himself  endorsed  it  ' '  too  high  praise  "  It  is  dated 
December  29.  The  letter  of  the  same  date  in  the  Correspondence 
(I,  55)  is  probably  the  concluding  portion  of  that  in  the  Forster  MSS. 


256  AARON    HILL 

wanton  rogue  is  half  air,  and  every  motion  he  acts  by  has  a 
spring  like  your  Pamela's,  when  she  threw  down  the  card- 
table."  This  "tom-tit  of  a  prater"  happened  to  be  present 
when  Hill  was  reading  aloud  Pamela's  reflections  at  the 
pond,  upon  the  wisdom  of  suicide :  ' '  The  little  rampant  in- 
truder, being  kept  out  by  the  extent  of  the  circle,  had  crept 
under  my  chair,  and  was  sitting  before  me  on  the  carpet, 
with  his  head  almost  touching  the  book,  and  his  face  bowing 
down  towards  the  fire.  He  had  sat  for  some  time  in  this 
posture,  with  a  stillness  that  made  us  conclude  him  asleep ; 
when  on  a  sudden  we  heard  a  succession  of  heart-heaving 
sobs.  ...  I  turned  his  innocent  face  to  look  towards  me, 
but  his  eyes  were  quite  lost  in  his  tears;  which  running 
down  from  his  cheeks  in  free  currents  had  formed  two 
sincere  little  fountains  on  that  part  of  the  carpet  he  hung 
over.  All  the  ladies  in  company  were  ready  to  devour  him 
with  kisses,  and  he  has  since  become  doubly  a  favorite; 
and  is,  perhaps,  the  youngest  of  Pamela's  converts."^* 

The  "too  high  praise"  and  the  tale  of  Harry's  sensibility 
brought  from  Richardson  an  epigram  for  Hill  and  a  book 
of  fables  for  the  boy.'^'^     Hill  tells  how  he  laid  aside  the 

68  Sensibility  was  profitable  then.  "Mrs.  Belfour"  (Correspond- 
ence, TV,  305)  tells  Richardson  how  a  lady  read  aloud  to  her  intimate 
friends  from  volume  VII  of  Clarissa,  while  her  maid  dressed  her 
hair;  but  the  maid  showered  tears  so  plentifully  over  her  mistress 
that  reading  and  curling  had  to  be  discontinued;  and  the  lady  was 
so  pleased  with  the  sensibility  of  the  maid  that  she  encouraged  it  by 
the  gift  of  a  crown. 

CO  See  letter  from  Hill,  December,  1740,  Carres.,  I,  59.  This  is 
the  epigram: 

"When  noble  thoughts  with  language  pure  unite, 

To  give  to  kindred  excellence  its  right; 

Tho'  unencumbered  with  the  clogs  of  rhyme, 

Where  tinkling  sounds  for  want  of  meaning  chime; 

Which,  like  the  rocks  in  Shannon's  midway  course, 

Divide  the  sense  and  interrupt  its  force; 

Well  we  may  judge  so  strong  and  clear  a  rill 

Plows  hither  from  the  Muses'  sacred  Hill." 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  257 

fables  while  he  read  the  letter:  "The  busy  pirate  .  .  .  fell 
to  lifting  the  leaves  one  by  one,  and  peeping  between  them 
with  the  archness  and  fear  of  a  monkey;  and  I  left  him 
.  .  ,  unobserved  to  the  enjoyment  of  his  cautious  discoveries, 
till  I  came  to  that  paragraph  in  your  letter  where  you  call 
him  the  dear  amiable  boy,  which  I  purposely  read  out  aloud. 
At  those  words,  up  flashed  all  the  fire  of  his  eyes,  with  a 
mixture  of  alarm  and  attention;  and  just  then  one  of  my 
daughters  happening  to  say:  'Now  am  I  sure  that  this 
good-natured  and  generous  Mr.  Richardson  has  sent  those 
two  books  for  little  Harry.' — 'See  here,'  added  the  other, 
'what  it  is  to  be  praised  for  a  boy  that  is  wise  and  loves 
reading.'  "  Harry's  ecstasy  was  unbounded.  "His  fairy 
face  (ears  and  all)  was  flushed  as  red  as  his  lips;  and  his 
flying  feet  told  his  joy  to  the  floor,  in  a  wild  and  stamping 
impatience  of  gratitude.  At  last  he  shot  himself,  in  ac- 
knowledgment, upon  me,  with  a  force  like  a  bullet;  and 
.  .  .  fell  to  kissing  me  for  a  minute  or  two  together." 
Harry  ' '  wanted  art  to  explain  his  conceptions ' ' ;  one  wovild 
sometimes  rather  have  his  stamping  raptures  than  Hill's 
more  artful  ecstasies.'^*' 

There  is  scarcely  any  diminution  in  Hill's  raptures  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  the  year  1741."     Mr.  Richardson  is  his 

"0  There  are  occasional  later  glimpses  of  the  ''little  Campbell," 
one  under  "the  umbrage  of  a  pair  of  out-strutting  hoops."  He  re- 
mained one  of  Eichardson's  admirers,  and  developed  some  wit  and 
much  honesty,  though  he  was  not  so  good  as  his  first  shoot  promised. 
Perhaps  his  sensibility  decreased.  He  was  one  of  the  witnesses  to 
Eichardson's  will. 

71  Mrs.  Jewkes  kept  Hill  awake  nights,  "till  the  Ghost  of  Lady 
Davers,  drawing  open  the  Curtain,  scares  the  Scarer  of  me  and  of 
Pamela"  (January  15).  Cf.  the  effect  of  Hill's  Art  of  Acting  on 
Eichardson:  "My  whole  frame,  so  nervously  affected  before,  was 
shaken  by  it.  I  found  such  Tremors,  such  Startings,  that  I  was  un- 
able to  go  through  it,"  until  fortified  by  the  oak-tincture  (October 
29,  1746). 
18 


258  AARON    HILL 

"dearest,  wisest,  most  virtuous,  and  never  enough  to  be 
loved"  friend;  and  he  Richardson's  "troublesome  but  in- 
expressibly devoted"  one.  He  offers  to  deal  with  any  ob- 
jections which  Richardson's  modesty  prevents  his  answer- 
ing, and  he  asks  for  the  foundation  of  the  story.  The 
letter  Richardson  wrote  in  reply — very  important  for  his 
biography,  though  less  so  for  Hill's — describes  the  originals 
of  Pamela  and  Mr.  B.,  and  the  inception  of  the  volume  of 
familiar  letters  which  grew  into  Pamela^-  The  whole 
family  visited  Richardson  at  Salisbury  Court  in  July — the 
girls  apparently  meeting  him  for  the  first  time;  for  when 
they  were  meditating  the  visit,  Hill  threatened  to  send 
their  true  pictures  before  them,  that  Richardson  "might 
expect  to  see  nothing  extraordinary;  and  one  of  the  bag- 
gages answered  me  that  the  most  extraordinary  thing  I 
could  send  would  be  the  pictures  of  women  drawn  truly. '  '^^ 
In  October,  the  young  ladies  were  in  Surrey,  "preaching 
Pamela  and  Pamela's  author  with  true  apostolical  attach- 
ment." 

With  one  persistent  request  of  Richardson 's — to  ' '  render 
Pamela  more  worthy"  of  their  approbation  by  correcting 
her — no  one  in  the  family  was  disposed  to  comply.  He  sent 
the  girls  an  interleaved  copy  of  the  book  for  this  purpose,'^* 
but  they  filled  the  sheets  with  "progressive  memorandums 
of  the  Benefits  her  conversation  brought  them."'^^  As 
Richardson  continued  to  insist  "kindly  and  warmly"  on 
corrections,  Hill  sent  a  few  verbal  suggestions,  after  going 
through  the  book  once  with  the  eye  and  the  heart  of  a 
cynic,  and  again  with  the  vigilance  of  friendship.'^"  Later, 
he    "improved"    some    passages    by    the    addition    of    a 

72  Cor  res.,  I,  Ixix  f. 

73  Hill  to  Richardson,  April  21,  1741.     Corres.,  I,  70. 

74  December  22,  1740. 

75  December  30,  1740. 

76  April  13,  1741. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  259 

"slightly  poetic  turn.""  One  objection  of  an  anonymous 
writer  had  a  little  weight,  in  his  opinion, — "that,  which 
advises  some  little  Contraction  of  the  Prayers  and  Appeals 
to  the  Deity.  I  say  little  Contraction :  for  they  are  nobly 
and  sincerely  Pathetic.  And  I  say  it  only  in  Fear,  lest,  if 
fancied  too  long  by  the  fashionably  Averse  to  the  Subject, 
jMinds  which  most  want  the  purposed  Impression,  might 
hazard  the  Loss  of  its  Benefits,  by  passing  over  those  pious 
Reflexions,  which,  if  shorter,  would  catch  their  Atten- 
tion."^® He  himself  cautiously  suggests  that  Pamela,  in 
writing  to  her  parents,  might  sometimes  refer  to  Mr.  B.  as 
"beloved,"  instead  of  always  "best-beloved";  for  there  is 
a  little  harshness  in  this  marked  preference  of  the  conjugal 
to  the  filial  affection.'^"  But  these  trifling  criticisms  only 
show  how  little  Pamela  needs  alteration:  "I  would  not 
scratch  such  a  beautiful  Face  for  the  Indies,"^** 

Hill  was,  if  possible,  more  enthusiastic  over  the  con- 
tinuation of  Pamela  than  over  the  first  part.  After  re- 
hearsing the  least  that  could  be  said  of  its  merits  (which 
included  boundless  invention,  bold  and  vast  reflection, 
sharp  and  generous  satire,  and  the  like),  and  declaring  that 
he  "never  could  endure  a  lukewarm  approbation,"  he 
expresses  a  desire  to  have  the  "sweet  charmer's  life" 
lengthened  to  a  fifth  and  even  a  sixth  volume :  ' '  Do  oblige 
mankind  with  this  Concession.  Nothing  ever  equall'd 
what  you  write:  and,  tho'  you  were  to  give  the  World  as 
many  Volumes  doubled  as  the  Six  I  pray  for,  not  a  Reader 
would  complain,  but  at  the  end  of  the  last  Paragraph. '  '^^ 

"7  December  15,  1741. 

78  January  6,  1741. 

79  February  25,  1742. 

80  January  6,  1741. 

81  October  22,  1741.  To  the  present-day  reader,  tMs  request  sounds 
monstrous.  But  there  were  admirers  of  Eichardson — and  people  of 
sense,  too, — who  read  every  one  of  his  volumes  through  once  a  year. 


260  AARON   HILL 

In  his  next  novel,  Richardson  did  his  best  to  satisfy  this 
thirst  for  many  volumes.  The  progress  of  Clarissa  Har- 
lowe  is  very  fully  reported  in  the  correspondence.  It  was 
far  from  being,  like  Pamela,  a  two-months'  labor;  and  to 
follow  its  development  through  the  many  closely  written 
pages  of  the  letters  of  four  years  is  to  gain  an  indelible  im- 
pression of  the  seriousness  and  extent  of  the  undertaking. 

The  first  news  of  Pamela's  successor — welcome  after 
dismal  talk  of  the  ill-success  of  The  Fanciad  and  The  Im- 
partial— is  Hill's  acknowledgment  of  the  receipt  of  the 
"good  and  beautiful  design"  of  a  new  attempt;  "you  must 
give  me  leave  to  be  astonished,"  he  writes,  "when  you 
tell  me  you  have  finished  it  already!"^-  This  evidently 
did  not  mean  that  it  was  ready  for  publication.  With  the 
first  instalments  of  the  new  novel  (sent  in  November,  1744) 
came  the  author 's  usual  request  that  Hill  do  some  pruning ; 
he  replied  that  he  could  not  think  of  it.  Again,  a  few 
weeks  later,  he  sees  no  "modest  possibility  of  doing  it," 
for — and  his  reason  is  good — "you  have  formed  a  style, 
as  much  your  property  as  our  respect  for  what  you  write 
is,  where  verbosity  becomes  a  virtue ;  because,  in  pictures 
which  you  draw  with  such  a  skilful  negligence,  redundance 
but  conveys  resemblance ;  and  to  contract  the  strokes  would 
be  to  spoil  the  likeness."®^  With  four  MS.  volumes  of 
Clarissa  in  his  hands.  Hill  is  ' '  beyond  expression,  impatient 
to  attend  her  Elopement  to  her  Lover," — an  impatience 
in  which  he  has  the  modern  reader's  sympathy.^* 

By  March,  Richardson  is  already  much  disturbed  by  the 
length  of  his  masterpiece;  and  so  are  his  friends.     Hill, 

Thomas  Edwards,  of  The  Canons  of  Criticisin,  was  one;  and  he 
wept  over  the  7th  volume  of  Clarissa  as  much  in  1755  as  he  had  in 
1748   (Corres.,  Ill,  111). 

82  July  24,  1744.     Corres.,  1,  101. 

83  January  7,  1745.     Corres.,  I,  99. 

84  February   28,   1745. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  261 

however,  refuses  to  join  in  the  remonstrances  made  by  "the 
erring  Diligence"  of  his  "curtailing  Friends."  He  begins 
to  waver  a  little  a  month  later,  when  he  realizes  that  five 
books  give  admission  only  to  the  hall  of  the  delightful 
building;  yet  Nature  is  lovely,  though  she  lead  us  over 
"boundless  wilds. "*^  Even  at  the  end  of  the  year,  he  will 
not  admit  that  the  "still  growing  as  well  as  lengthening 
Beauty"  is  too  tall;  but,  he  adds,  "if  there  is  any  Place, 
that  can  be  shortened,  without  maiming  this  delightful 
Composition,  You,  who  have  created  it,  and  have  it's  whole 
Proportion  and  Connexion  in  your  Eye,  at  once,  are  better 
justified  in  doing  it"  than  anyone  else;  "it  is  in  the  first 
stages  (if  at  all)  that  you  must  look  for  lopping  Places. 
All  your  after-growths  are  sacred,  to  the  smallest  Twig.  "^^ 
As  Richardson  kept  on  sending  his  manuscript  and  asking 
advice,  Hill  was  forced  to  keep  on  explaining  why  he  did 
not  want  the  task  of  criticism.®^  In  the  effort  to  reassure 
Richardson,  he  takes  refuge  in  some  curious  reasoning: 
"Your  very  full  and  striking  Title  Page  informs  us  for 
what  kind  of  Readers,  chiefly,  you  adapt  the  use,  of  your 
instructive  Story. — If  you  had  designed  a  Piece,  for  the 
Severe,  the  Pensive,  and  the  Practised,  you  would  cer- 
tainly have  acted  right  in  cutting  off  whatever  might  seem 
spread  too  'broad,  or  too  remote  from  the  main  point  in- 
tended. But  you  are  here,  endeavoring  to  fix  the  Mercury 
of  Light,  and  inattentive  Volatiles.  "^^  A  method  not  well 
adapted  to  the  end,  one  would  imagine ;  but  Hill  thinks  the 
Volatiles  like  to  hear  of  what  resembles  them,  and  Richard- 
son must  mix  his  instructions  with  what  they  like. 

This  settled  the  matter  for  a  time.     But  it  came  up  again 
in  the   fall   of   1746,   and  unfortunately  found   Hill   less 

85  April  4,  1745. 

86  Letter  dated  "end  of  1745." 

87  January  30,  1746. 

88  February  6,  1746. 


262  AARON    HILL 

obdurate.  Richardson  was  then  planning  to  abridge  some 
letters,  and  Hill  suggests  "cautiously  retrenching  Repeti- 
tions of  the  same  Events"  by  throwing  in  "Notes,  in  places 
where  it  can  be  narratively  done,  without  diminishing  a 
fine  Effect  that  rises  very  often  .  .  .  from  different  views 
and  principles  of  Persons  to  whom  the  same  Fact  is  re- 
lated. "^^  This  advice  was  general  enough  to  be  harmless. 
But  he  added  some  dangerously  detailed  comments  on  the 
characters  of  Lovelace  and  Clarissa — ^too  detailed  to  be 
quoted  at  length.  The  gist  of  his  criticism  is  that  the  lady 
ought  to  be  really  in  love  with  Lovelace  before  the  duel, 
and  that  he  should  be  more  generous  in  dealing  with  her 
brother — an  impressive  genteel  compliment  or  two  would 
not  be  amiss ;  such  conduct  would  inspire  Clarissa  with 
confidence  and  put  a  better  face  on  her  desertion.  Richard- 
son was  so  agitated  by  this  letter  that  he  turned  it  over  to 
a  friend,  whose  comments,  arranged  under  five  heads,  he 
carefully  copied  out  and  attached  to  Hill's  letter.  The 
obliging  friend  found  the  observations  mistaken,  even 
though  dictated  by  the  brain  of  so  sublime  a  genius  as  Hill : 
for  Richardson's  Lovelace,  delighting  in  cruelty  and  in 
the  tears  of  distressed  beauty,  they  would  substitute  a  Love- 
lace actuated  by  generosity  and  true  love.  And  Clarissa 
in  love — horrible!  "Alas!  this  Gentleman  may  have  true 
Ideas  of  Common  Life,  but  not  of  that  exalted  Spirit, 
which  urges  its  Votaries  to  ascend  the  steep  Summit  of 
Perfection."  In  short.  Hill  has  suggested  a  new  Clarissa 
as  well  as  a  new  Lovelace, — a  confiding  and  unsuspecting 
one,  "such  a  one  as  might  easily  be  adopted  by  any  giddy 
wench  that  ever  ran  away  with  her  father's  footman."  It 
is  fortunate  that  Hill  did  not  see  this  arraignment  of  his 
delicacy. 

80  October  23,  1746. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  263 

Richardson's  next  letter  contained  an  elaborate  exposi- 
tion of  his  conception  of  his  characters.  Clarissa  must 
not  avow,  even  to  herself,  a  passion  whose  object  is  un- 
worthy; she  must  subdue  it;  she  must  be  so  faultless  that 
readers  in  doubt  of  a  future  life  will  realize  that  only  a 
heavenly  reward  could  justify  her  sufferings  on  earth. 
Lovelace  is  meant  to  be  as  unamiable  as  possible :  "  I  once 
read  to  a  young  Lady  Part  of  his  Character,  and  then  his 
end;  and  upon  her  pitying  him,  and  wishing  he  had  been 
rather  made  a  Penitent,  than  to  be  killed,  I  made  him 
more  and  more  odious,  by  his  heightened  Arrogance  and 
Triumph,  as  well  as  by  his  vile  actions,  leaving  only  some 
qualities  in  him  laudable  enough  to  justify  her  first  liking. ' ' 
Poor  Richardson  was  now  in  serious  difficulties  on  the  vital 
question  of  abridgment,  not  only  with  Hill,  but  with 
several  other  friends.  A  certain  doctor  advises  him  not  to 
cut  out  any  sentiments,  but  to  follow  the  plan  of  the  above- 
weight  Newmarket  jockeys — sweat  away  what  he  takes  out; 
Mr.  Cibber  wants  whole  branches  cut  off — "some  of  which, 
however,  he  dislikes  not ' ' ;  but  these  are  just  the  branches 
Young  would  keep;  and  the  doctor's  wife,  "a  Woman  of 
fine  Sense,"  begs  not  to  be  robbed  of  any  of  her  Acquaint- 
ance. Though  he  has  carried  out  Hill's  suggestion  about 
the  narrative  notes,  Richardson  still  finds  the  book  "a  vast 
deal  too  long";  and  begs  again  for  help.^° 

Hill,  declaring  himself  satisfied  with  the  analysis  of  the 
two  leading  characters,  retired  to  the  comparatively  safe 
ground  of  the  title,  which  he  thinks  should  be  adequate  to 
Richardson's  " unboundedness  of  Comprehension  in  tli'J 
Subject."  The  title  he  suggests  is  adequate  enough  for 
anything : 

90  October  29,  1746.  One  of  Richardson 's  objects — displaying  an 
unusually  enlightened  point  of  view — was  ' '  to  expose  that  pernicious 
notion  that  a  reformed  rake  .  .  .  makes  the  best  husband. ' ' 


264  AARON    HILL 

*'  The  Lady's  Legacy : 

or 

The  whole  gay  and  serious  Compass  of  the  Human 

Heart  laid  open, 

For  the  service  of  both  sexes. 

In  the  History  of  the  Life  and  Ruin  of 

a  lately  Celebrated  Beauty 

Miss  Clarissa  Harlowe. 

Including 

Great  Variety  of  other  Lives  and  Characters 

Occasionally  interested  in  the  Moving  Story. 

Detecting  and  exposing 

The  most  secret  Arts  and  Subtlest  Practices 

of 

That  endangering  Species  of  Triumphant  Rakes 

call'd 

Women's  Men. 

Assisted  by  corrupt  and  vicious  Engines  of  the  Sex  they  plot  against. 

Published  in  compliance  with  the  Lady's  order  on  her  death-bed, 

as  a  Warning  to  unguarded,  vain,  or  credulous  Innocence." 

The  alternative  title — for  Hill  was  equal  to  more  than  one 
— is  worse : 

"  The  Lady's  Remembrancer : 

or 

The  Way  of  a  Young  Man  with  a  Maid. 

Being  the  whole,"  and  so  on  as  before. 

Hill  thought  this  full  enough  without  reference  to  the 
parents;  but  it  really  seems  a  little  harsh  to  discriminate 
against  them  in  so  roomy  a  title. ^^ 

A  short  time  after  this  achievement,  Hill  offered  to  try 
the  Newmarket  jockey  method  of  contraction  on  a  few 
letters.  If  the  experiment  does  no  other  good,  he  declares, 
it  may  at  least  cure  Richardson  of  his  desire  for  curtail- 

91  November  5,  1746.  Eichardson  thought  the  title  too  long  (Janu- 
ary 5,  1747). 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  265 

ment."-  Hill  has  been  accused  of  tactlessness  in  making 
the  attempt,''^  but  it  is  hard  to  see  what  else  he  could  have 
done,  when  Richardson's  persistent  appeals  for  help  con- 
tinued after  Hill  had  exhausted  all  his  excuses  for  refusing. 
And  the  experiment  did  accomplish  the  cure  Hill  antici- 
pated ;  in  addition,  it  unfortunately  created  a  temporary 
coolness  in  their  friendship.  When  The  New  Clarissa 
arrived  in  December  from  Plaistow,  Richardson  was 
amazed.®*  By  his  computations,  Hill's  alterations  in  the 
eight  or  nine  letters  he  had  worked  over  would  cut  off 
about  two-thirds,  and  reduce  the  whole  to  three  volumes. 
This  was  too  drastic — his  purpose  could  scarcely  be  an- 
swered in  so  small  a  compass,  "without  taking  from  it 
those  simple,  tho'  diffuse  Parts,  which  some  like,  and  have 
(however  unduly)  complimented  me  upon,  as  making  a 
new  species  of  writing."  He  is  clearly  quite  miserable 
over  the  matter.  One  shocked  little  comment  is  hidden 
away  in  the  margin  of  a  page  of  The  New  Clarissa  in  the 
Forster  MSS.  Hill  had  put  the  exclamation  "by  Heaven" 
in  the  mouth  of  Arabella  Harlowe :  "  To  what  regiment  of 
guards,"  writes  Richardson,  "could  this  lady  belong?" 
He  assured  Hill,  however,  that  as  a  model  his  efforts  would 
be  of  great  service,  and  asked  him  to  proceed  farther  in  the 
volume  and  write  a  preface,  as  well. 

Hill  could  only  exclaim  in  despair,  "I  knew  .  .  .  (and 
have  told  you  so  with  a  sincerity  becoming  the  Affection  I 
ever  did,  and  ever  must,  bear  you)  that  your  Genius  was  as 
new  as  extensive;  and  that  you  constituted  a  new  Species, 
by  your  peculiarly  natural  Manner  of  Writing. — I  told 
you,  too,  that  I  judged  it  an  impossibility,  to  shorten  .  .  . 
without  cutting  off  a  Luxuriancy  of  beauties.  And  now, 
you  have  had  an  Example  and  Proof  that  everything  I  said 

92  November  20,  1746. 

93  C.  L.  Thomson :  Samuel  Bichardson,  42. 
s*  January  5,  1747. 


266  AARON   HILL 

to  you  was  true.  And  that  wherever  a  Genius  so  peculiar 
as  yours  is,  overruns  the  Space  it  allots  itself,  it  is  only 
the  same  Genius,  that  can,  fitly,  reduce  it. ' '  Since  Richard- 
son is  unwilling  to  leave  out  the  ''lively  Simplicities"  that 
must  be  sacrificed  if  there  is  to  be  any  reduction,  he  has 
destroyed  his  attempts  at  further  alteration.  Suppose  one 
unreduced  volume  is  tried  on  the  public;  if  they  accept  it, 
the  rest  can  be  printed  without  contraction.®^ 

Richardson  might  have  been  appeased,  if  Hill  had  not 
gone  on  to  reaffirm  his  views  of  Lovelace  and  Clarissa. 
He  had  seized  the  opportunity  in  his  version  to  make 
Lovelace  more  of  a  gentleman — a  more  delicate  thinker ;  to 
picture  him  so  very  black  a  villain  would  be  to  destroy  the 
moral :  what  young  woman  would  suppose  her  lover  so 
base?  It  is  a  question  whether  the  addition  of  Hillian 
delicacy  of  thought  would  not  have  made  Lovelace  a  more 
impossible  combination  of  qualities  than  critics  usually 
agree  he  now  is.  But  Richardson 's  reply  proved  there  was 
no  hope  of  his  improvement :  "  I  am  a  good  deal  warped  by 
the  character  of  a  Gentleman  I  had  in  my  Eye,  when  T 
drew  both  him,  and  Mr.  B.  in  Pamela.  The  best  of  that 
gentleman  for  the  latter;  the  worst  of  him  for  Lovelace, 
made  still  worse  by  mingling  the  worst  of  two  other  Char- 
acters, that  were  as  well  known  to  me,  of  that  Gentleman's 
Acquaintance."®"  At  least,  Hill  may  be  given  credit  for 
recognizing  certain  weaknesses  in  the  conception  of  Love- 
lace, and  for  standing  by  his  opinion.  Most  of  Richard- 
son's correspondents  were  incapable  of  that  much  inde- 
pendence of  thought  in  relation  to  his  works. 

It  was  Clarissa,  however,  who  nearly  broke  off  the  friend- 
ship.     "No    inducement,    weaker    than    resistless    Love," 

95  January  23,  1747. 

96  January  26,  1747.  The  gentleman  who  sat  for  these  portraits 
of  Lovelace  and  Mr.  B.  is  sometimes  identified  as  Philip,  Duke  of 
Wharton. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON  267 

wrote  Hill,  "will  justify  Clarissa's  rash  elopement  with  a 
man."  She  could  have  refused  her  consent  at  the  altar; 
and  she  had  less  to  fear  from  her  father's  indignation  at  her 
rejection  of  the  wretch  he  proposed  to  her  than  from 
"running  away  from  his  House,  with  a  worse,  if  possible, 
of  her  own  choosing."""  This  harsh  characterization  of  the 
divine  Clarissa's  flight  was  more  than  Richardson  could 
stand.  He  was  greatly  mortified  that  her  act  "should  be 
called  by  such  a  clear  discerner:  a  rash  Elopement  with  a 
Man."  He  had  tried  to  make  it  manifest  that,  though 
provoked  in  every  way  and  even  brought  to  promise  to  go 
off,  she  had  met  Lovelace  only  to  refuse.  "I  am  very  un- 
fortunate, good  Sir,  ...  to  be  so  ill  understood,  to  have 
given  Reason,  I  should  say,  to  be  so  little  understood."  To 
confront  Hill,  he  brings  up  the  testimony  of  two  very  deli- 
cate minds  of  the  "sex,"  who  owned  "they  should  not,  in 
her  Case,  have  been  able,  however  reluctant,  to  avoid  being 
carried  off.  "''^ 

Hill's  conciliatory  reply  brought  no  answer,  and  he 
began  to  fear,  after  writing  once  more,  that  he  might  have 
been  misunderstood.  He  reminded  his  friend  that  the 
office  of  "contractor"  was  undertaken  at  Richardson's  re- 
quest; that  his  advice  was  asked;  and  he  thought  it  his 
duty  to  point  out  in  a  frank  and  friendly  manner  the  few 
places  where  there  was  room  for  criticism.  He  stubbornly 
reiterated,  however,  that  Clarissa  should  be  betrayed  into 
meeting  Lovelace."" 

In  the  absence  of  any  letters  until  the  following  Novem- 

9"  This  comment  resembles  in  brutal  frankness  that  of  Lady  M.  W. 
Montagu  on  Clarissa :  ' '  Any  girl  that  runs  away  with  a  young  fellow, 
without  intending  to  marry  him,  should  be  carried  to  Bridewell  or  to 
Bedlam  the  next  day"  {Letters  and  Works,  ed.  W.  Moy  Thomas,  II, 
232). 

98  January  26,  1747. 

99  Hill  to  Richardson,  January  28  and  February  9,  1747. 


268  AARON    HILL 

ber,  it  must  be  supposed  that  Richardson  was  not  mollified. 
When  the  correspondence  was  reopened — apparently  by 
Hill, — the  dangerous  subject  was  dropped  altogether.  Hill 
politely  inquired  M^hat  his  friend  meant  to  do  with  the 
divine  Clarissa.  Heaven  forbid  that  he  should  leave  pub- 
lication to  his  executors.  Richardson  responded  by  send- 
ing the  first  printed  volumes,  and  thus  throwing  the  whole 
family  into  raptures.^""  For  Clarissa,  henceforth,  Hill  has 
only  praise,  and  that  varied  and  fluent  to  the  limit  of  his 
vocabulary ;  and  beyond  that  limit,  he  takes  refuge  in  silent 
amazement:  "You  are — in  short,  I  cannot  tell  what  you 
are.     I  only  know,  I  feel  it!"^"^ 

Richardson's  sufferings  were  now  caused  by  other 
friends,  who  wished  the  novel  to  end  happily.  With  the 
present  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  volumes,  he  writes :  ' '  These 
will  show  you.  Sir,  that  I  intend  more  than  a  Novel  or  Ro- 
mance by  this  Piece;  and  that  it  is  of  the  tragic  kind.  In 
short,  that  I  thought  my  principal  characters  could  not  be 
rewarded  by  any  happiness  short  of  the  heavenly.  But 
how  have  I  suffered  by  this  from  the  cavils  of  some,  from 
the  Prayers  of  others,  from  the  entreaties  of  many  more,  to 
make  what  is  called  a  happy  ending.  Mr.  Lyttleton,  the 
late  Mr.  Thomson,  Mr.  Gibber,  and  Mr.  Fielding  have  been 
among  these.""-  Hill  did  not  swell  the  chorus.  Nor  did 
his  daughters  make  any  rash  effort  at  compliance,  when 
Richardson,  undeterred  by  former  experiences,  asked  them 
to  point  out  any  lack  of  delicacy  or  female  grace  in  Clarissa 
or  Miss  Howe ;  he  would  not  have  even  Miss  Howe,  in  the 
height  of  her  vivacity,  indelicate."^  The  father  of  the 
young  ladies  replied  for  them :  to  hint  that  Clarissa  lacked 
delicacy !  ' '  who  alone  could  reinspire  it  through  an  unsexed 

100  Hill  to  Richardson,  November  3  and  November  26,  1747. 

101  May  5,  1748'. 

102  November  7,  1748. 

103  November  18,  1748. 


HILL   AND   RICHARDSON"  269 

world!  "^°*  The  family  were  hoping  at  this  time  soon  to 
have  the  noble  pleasure  of  attending  the  divine  Clarissa  to 
her  "heavenly  Period";  and  on  November  29,  Hill  "buried 
the  dear  girl"  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning — after  she 
had  cost  him  tears  enough  to  swim  the  volumes  that  excited 
them.  "At  this  moment,"  he  wrote,  "I  have  three  girls 
around  me — Each  a  Separate  Volume  in  her  hand,  and  all 
their  Eyes  like  a  wet  flower  in  April  I"^**^ 

When  the  Misses  Hill  had  dried  their  eyes,  they  wrote 
to  ask  Richardson  if  there  ever  really  were  such  "masked 
male  Savages  as  Lovelace,"  and  to  compare  the  author's 
gradations  to  those  of  Nature  from  season  to  season :  ' '  You 
raised  your  Pamela  from  very  humbly  sweet,  to  very  nobly 
elevated.  And  now,  beginning  with  Clarissa  where  you 
left  your  other  charmer,  you  have  found  a  more  than  mortal 
Power  to  raise  her  also  with  a  gradual  Exaltation.""*' 
Richardson  was  more  pleased  with  Astraea  and  Minerva 
than  he  had  recently  been  with  their  father.  Can  they 
believe,  he  asks,  that  many  of  their  sex  pity  Lovelace  and 
call  Clarissa  hard-hearted?  Presently  he  is  begging  them 
to  indicate  his  faults — their  praise  is  making  him  vain: 
"From  whom  can  I,  in  Matters  of  Delicacy,  expect  De- 
tection and  Correction,  if  not  from  Ladies  who  have  the 
Happiness  of  so  dear  and  near  a  Relation  to  Mr.  Hill?""'' 

The  delicacy  of  the  young  ladies  was  notable  when  it  ap- 
proved of  Clarissa;  for  less  obvious  when  it  saw  good  in 
Tom  Jones.  Richardson's  attitude  towards  his  rival 
novelist,  who  had  insulted  him  far  more  by  achieving  popu- 

104  November  25,  1748. 

105  They  were  more  sociable  than  the  Highmore  family,  who  retired 
each  to  a  separate  apartment  to  read  ami  weep  at  ease  (Corres.,  I,  cxi). 

106  December  13,  1748. 

107  Letters  from  Eichardson,  December  14,  1748,  and  January  6, 
1749. 


270  AARON    HILL 

larity  with  a  Tom  Jones  than  by  making  his  "lewd  and 
ungenerous  engraftment"  upon  Pamela,  is  distinctly  petty 
and  spiteful.  The  two  men  were  temperamentally  at  oppo- 
site poles.  Nor  was  it  to  the  credit  of  most  of  Richardson's 
correspondents  that  they  humored  him  in  his  jealousy. 
The  Hill  girls,  for  all  their  delicacy,  proved  to  be  excep- 
tions. "Dear  Sir,"  wrote  Richardson,  July  12,  1749, 
"have  you  read  Tom  Jones?  ...  I  have  found  neither 
Leisure  nor  Inclination,  yet,  to  read  that  Piece,  and  the 
less  inclination  as  several  good  judges  of  my  acquaintance 
condemn  it  and  the  general  taste  together.  I  could  wish  to 
know  the  Sentiments  of  your  ladies  upon  it.  If  favourable, 
they  would  induce  me  to  open  the  six  volumes."  Hill 
promised  that  the  girls  would  oblige  him  in  the  matter: 
"They  will  certainly  have  sauciness  enough  to  do  it,  being 
of  late  grown  borrowing  Customers  to  an  Itinerary  Book- 
seller's Shop,  that  rumbles,  once  a  week,  thro'  Plaistow  in 
a  wheelbarrow,  with  Chaff  enough,  of  Conscience!  and 
sometimes  a  weightier  Grain.  ""^  Within  a  week,  Astraea 
and  Minerva  sent  their  joint  sentiments  :^°^ 

"  Having  with  much  ado  got  over  some  reluctance,  that  was 
bred  by  a  familiar  coarseness  in  the  Title,  we  went  thro'  the 
whole  six  volumes;  and  found  much  (masqued)  merit,  in  'em 
all;  a  double  merit,  both  of  Head,  and  Heart.  Had  there  been 
only  that  of  the  last  sort,  you  love  it,  I  am  sure,  too  much  to 
leave  a  Doubt  of  your  resolving  to  examine  it.  .  .  .  The  author 
introduces  all  his  Sections  .  .  .  with  long  runs  of  bantering 
Levity,  which  his  good  sense  may  suffer  the  effect  of.  It  is  true, 
he  seems  to  wear  this  Lightness,  as  a  gTave  Head  sometimes  wears 
a  feather;  which  tho'  he  and  Fashion  may  consider  as  an  orna- 
ment, Reflection  will  condemn,  as  a  Disguise  and  covering.  Girls, 
perhaps,  of  an  untittering  Disposition,  are  improper  Judges  of 
what  merit  there  may  be  in  Lightness,  when  it  endeavors  rather 

108  July  20,  1749. 
100  July  27,  1749. 


HILL   AND   RICHiVEDSON  271 

at  ironic  satire  than  encouragement  of  Folly.  But  tell  us, 
Dear  Sir,  are  we  in  the  right,  or  no,  when  we  presume  to  own  it 
as  our  Notion,  that  however  well  meant  such  a  Motive  may  have 
been,  the  execution  of  it  must  be  found  distasteful?  For  we 
can't  help  thinking  that  a  mind  framed  right  for  Virtue  courts 
and  serves  her  with  too  much  Respect,  to  join  in  throwing  a 
Fool's  Coat  upon  her.  .  .  .  Meanwhile,  it  is  an  honest  pleasure, 
which  we  take  in  adding,  that  (exclusive  of  one  wild,  detached 
and  independent  Story  of  a  Man  of  the  Hill,  that  neither  brings 
on  anything,  nor  rose  from  anything  that  went  before  it)  All  the 
changefull  windings  of  the  author's  fancy  carry  on  a  course  of 
regular  design;  and  end  in  an  extremely  moving  close,  where 
Lines  that  seemed  to  wander  and  run  different  ways,  meet.  All, 
in  an  instructive  Centre. 

''  The  whole  Piece  consists  of  an  inventive  race  of  Disappoint- 
ments and  Recoveries.  It  excites  Curiosity,  and  holds  it  watchful. 
It  has  just  and  pointed  Satire;  but  it  is  a  partial  satire,  and 
confined  too  narrowly.  It  sacrifices  to  Authoi'ity  and  Interest. 
Its  Events  reward  Sincerity,  and  punish  and  expose  Hypocrisy; 
shew  pity  and  benevolence  in  amiable  Lights,  and  Avarice  and 
Brutality  in  very  despicable  ones.  In  every  Part  it  has 
Humanity  for  its  Intention;  in  too  many  it  seems  wantoner  than 
it  was  meant  to  be:  It  has  bold  shocking  Pictures;  and  (I  fear) 
not  unresembling  ones,  in  high  Life  and  in  low.  And  (to  con- 
clude this  too  adventurous  guess  work  from  a  pair  of  forward 
baggages)  would,  everywhere,  .  .  .  deserve  to  please, — if  stript 
of  what  the  Author  thought  himself  most  sure  to  please  by." 

An  excellent  criticism,  but  not  one  to  please  Richardson. 
He  replied  that  he  had  been  prejudiced  by  the  opinion  of 
judicious  friends  against  the  coarse-titled  Tom:  "I  was 
told,  that  it  was  a  rambling  Collection  of  waking  Dreams, 
in  which  Probability  was  not  observed;  and  that  it  has  a 
very  bad  tendency.  And  I  had  Reason  to  think  that  the 
Author  intended  for  his  second  View  (his  first,  to  fill  his 
Pocket  by  accommodating  it  to  the  reigning  Taste)  in 
writing  it,  to  whiten  a  vicious  Character,   and  to  make 


272  AARON   HILL 

Morality  bend  to  his  practises."  Why  else  did  he  make 
Tom  a  "kept  Fellow,  the  lowest  of  all  Fellows,"  and  yet 
in  love  with  a  young  creature  who  was  "traipsing  after 
him?"  Why  such  a  fond,  foolish,  insipid  heroine?  He 
does  not  know  how  to  draw  a  delicate  woman — he  is  not 
accustomed  to  their  company.  He  knows  the  man  and 
dislikes  his  principles,  public  and  private. ^^'^ 

Reduced  to  tears  by  this  letter,  but  not  subdued,  the  two 
critics  permitted  their  father  to  answer  for  them:  "Un- 
fortunate Tom  Jones!  how  sadly  has  he  mortified  Two 
sawcy  correspondents  of  your  making !  They  are  with  me 
now,  and  bid  me  tell  you,  you  have  spoiled  'em  both,  for 
criticks.  Shall  I  add,  a  Secret  which  they  did  not  bid  me 
tell  you?  They,  both,  fairly  cried,  that  you  should  think 
it  possible  they  could  approve  of  anything,  in  any  Work, 
that  had  an  evil  tendency,  in  any  part  or  purpose  of  it. 
They  maintain  their  point  so  far,  however,  as  to  be  con- 
vinced, they  say,  that  yoit  will  disapprove  this  over-rigid 
Judgment  of  those  Friends,  who  could  not  find  a  thread  of 
moral  meaning,  in  Tom  Jones,  quite  independent  of  the 
Levities  they  justly  censure.  And  as  soon  as  you  have 
time  to  read  him,  for  yourself,  'tis  there,  pert  creatures,  they 
will  be  bold  enough  to  rest  the  matter."^" 

Richardson,  distressed  as  he  was  to  have  given  pain  to 
the  ladies,  yet  insists  on  their  few  adverse  comments  to 
justify  himself:  did  they  not  say  the  merit  was  masqued? 
and  did  they  not  make  other  fine  reflections  on  the  inad- 
visability  of  showing  wisdom  with  a  monkey's  face?  "I 
imagined,  I  said,  that  the  censurers  of  Tom  Jones  were 
too  severe ;  and  why  ?  Because  ladies  of  superior  delicacy 
were  so  good  as  to  overlook  the  passages  unworthy  of  their 
regard,  and  find  a  good  intention  in  the  rest.  .  .  .  I  said, 

110  August  4,  1749. 

111  August  11,  1749. 


HILL   AND    RICHARDSON  273 

that,  knowing  the  man,  I  had  the  more  suspicion ;  for  he  is 
a  very  indelicate,  a  very  impetuous,  an  unyielding  spirited 
man,  and  is  capable  of  forming  a  morality  to  his  practise." 
And  the  ladies  said,  too,  that  it  had  shocking  pictures; 
"could  I  have  imagined.  Sir,  that  I,  in  following  this  clue, 
and  in  writing  freely  what  those  censurers  have  said,  who 
were  disgusted  with  these  faults,  and  looked  upon  them  in 
a  light  too  strong,  without  considering  the  rest  with  that 
candour  which  your  ladies  have  laudably  manifested,  for 
what  must  therefore  be  praiseworthy  in  it,  or  even  for  ex- 
pressing my  own  disgust  on  several  of  the  passages  which  I 
had  read,  should  have  written  so  as  to  have  affected  the 
dear  ladies  ?"^^-  The  ladies  must  have  been  very  well 
aware  by  this  time  of  the  nature  of  their  offense. 

This  marks  the  close  of  the  correspondence  with  Hill. 
He  was  seriously  ill  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  and 
died  on  February  8,  1750,  "at  the  instant  of  the  earth- 
quake.""^ On  February  10,  Richardson  wrote  to  his 
friend  Skelton  :"*  ' '  I  have  just  lost  my  dear  and  excellent- 
hearted  friend,  Mr.  Hill,  author  of  Gideon.  I  was  present 
at  some  of  his  last  scenes;  my  nerves  can  witness  that  I 
was.  I  am  endeavoring  to  find  opportunities  to  show  my 
regard  to  his  memory,  by  my  good  offices  to  three  excellent 

112  August  18,  1749. 

113  London  Magazine,  February,  1750,  56. 

114  Corres.,  V.,  199.  From  the  profuse  expressions  of  gratitude  in 
the  letters  of  Hill's  brother  and  of  his  daughters  Astraea  and 
Urania,  Eichardson  must  have  carried  out  his  generous  intentions, 
probably  helping  in  the  publication  of  Hill's  works.  Urania,  "the 
managing  sister  of  the  three,"  who  inherited  her  father's  epistolary 
style  more  completely  than  her  sisters,  kept  up  a  correspondence  with 
Eichardson  for  eight  years, — until  he  criticized  for  indelicacy  a 
novel  she  submitted  to  him.  Her  hurt  rejoinder  led  him  to  comimeiit 
despairingly  on  the  margin  of  her  letter:  "I  will  only  say,  I  truly 
meant,  service,  not  criticism.  Who  but  the  Lady  was  to  see  what  I 
wrote?" 

19 


274  AARON    HILL 

daughters,  who,  for  their  filial  piety,  merit  all  praise,  and 
for  their  other  merits,  deserve  to  be  the  care  of  all  who 
know  them."  Hill's  death  occurred  the  day  before  a 
benefit  performance  of  Merope,  which  had  been  commanded 
— probably  through  Mallet's  influence — by  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  There  is  a  touch  of  irony  in  the  fact  that  the  man 
who  had  so  generously  promoted  many  benefit  performances 
for  his  distressed  friends  should  have  needed  such  aid  him- 
self in  the  last  days  of  his  life,  and  should  have  died  before 
he  could  receive  it.  He  was  buried  near  his  wife,  in  the 
cloisters  of  Westminster  Abbey. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


CONCLUSION 


It  would  be  rash  to  claim  that  the  preceding  chapters 
have  dealt  with  all  of  Hill's  activities;  some  of  them  may 
have  left  no  traces  that  can  be  discovered  now.  There  is 
a  hint  in  a  scurrilous  attack  on  the  Prompter  in  Fog's 
Weekly  Journal  (December  7,  1734)  that  Hill  "plied  at 
Cato's  elbow,  in  the  South  Sea  days";  it  may  mean  that 
he  wrote  anonymously  in  the  London  Journal  or  the  British 
Journal,  which  published  Cato's  letters  against  the  South 
Sea  Company.  If  he  did,  then  he  was  engaged  to  some 
extent  in  political  controversy — the  one  form  of  activity  he 
seemed  to  care  little  about.  Once  he  himself  referred  to 
all  he  had  seen  in  the  armies  of  three  nations.  Most  prob- 
ably these  observations  were  made  during  his  early  tours, 
though  he  may  have  found,  before  he  began  to  write  poetry 
in  London,  a  few  odd  months  to  serve  a  campaign  or  two. 

The  discovery  of  some  new  enterprise  would  arouse  no 
astonishment  in  one  who  reflects  upon  the  versatility  that 
had  revealed  Hill  before  the  age  of  thirty  as  traveller, 
tutor,  secretary,  poet,  translator,  historian,  dramatist,  stage 
manager,  opera  librettist,  and  commercial  projector.  In 
some  of  these  roles  he  appeared  only  once.  But  a  pro- 
jector, in  practise  and  in  theory,  he  remained  to  the  end  of 
his  life — the  enterprising  agent  of  the  York  Buildings 
Company,  the  dreamer  of  a  Paradise  in  America,  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  Plaistow  vineyards.  A  theatrical  expert  he 
was  always — a  keen  observer  of  changing  conditions,  a 
student  of  the  art  of  acting,  a  caustic  critic  of  the  managers, 
and  a  dramatist,  who  won  with  his  translations  of  Voltaire 

275 


276  AAEON    HILL 

a  success  that  had  been  denied  to  his  original  work.  He 
was  a  poet — so  far  as  his  talents  permitted  him  to  be — to 
the  last;  and  in  that  role  he  came  to  know  and  to  influence 
the  careers  of  younger  writers;  and  the  most  successful  of 
his  poems  brought  him  the  mixed  reward  of  a  gold  medal 
from  a  Czar  and  a  literary  quarrel  with  Pope.  His  many 
acts  of  kindness  were  in  a  manner  repaid — not  by  their 
recipients,  but  by  the  loyal  friendship  of  Richardson.  This 
versatility,  and  the  touch  of  romantic  ardor  in  his  nature, 
which  had  sent  him  off  as  a  boy  of  fifteen  alone  to  Turkey, 
explain  in  some  measure  the  attraction  he  had  for  his  con- 
temporaries and  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held.  His 
friends  saw  him  engaged  in  many  fields;  if  some  of  them 
were  a  little  uncertain  of  his  eminence  in  that  field  which 
they  knew  best,  they  were  probably  willing  to  believe  him 
greater  in  another  of  which  they  knew  little.  When 
Colonel  Horsey  recovered  from  the  transports  of  his  first 
contemplation  of  Scotch  timber,  he  may  have  reflected  that 
an  imagination,  which  was  not  an  unmixed  blessing  to  a 
projector,  must  be  an  asset  of  great  value  to  a  poet;  and  if 
Savage  or  Thomson  secretly  entertained  any  doubts  of 
their  loved  Hillarius's  poetic  supremacy,  they  could  not 
resist  the  impression  of  the  coach  and  six  bearing  the 
projector  in  triumph  to  Scotland.  Praise  directed  at  a 
man  of  so  many  talents  must  find  its  mark  somewhere. 

When,  three  years  after  Hill's  death,  his  Works  were 
published  in  four  volumes,  his  reputation  was  still  great 
enough  to  attract  over  fifteen  hundred  subscribers ;  but 
seven  years  later,  only  one-fourth  that  number  could  be 
persuaded  to  subscribe  to  his  Dramatic  Works.  The  course 
of  his  fame  was  steadily  downward  as  the  impression  of  his 
vigorous  personality  faded  away,  and  only  his  works  were 
left  to  speak  for  him.  They  spoke  very  badly.  Although, 
seventy  years  after  his  death,  selections  were  still  made 


CONCLUSION  277 

from  his  poetry  and  his  plays  for  the  volumes  of  the 
British  poets  and  the  British  drama,  these  volumes  them- 
selves are  now  little  read.  But  his  name  and  the  record  of 
his  activities  could  not  perish  so  completely  as  his  poems. 
Those  who  have  written  in  recent  years  of  Richardson  and 
Fielding,  of  Pope  and  Thomson  and  Savage,  have  found 
Hill  in  their  path,  not  to  be  ignored ;  the  chronicler  of  the 
York  Buildings  Company  owed  to  him  some  of  his  most 
entertaining  pages ;  the  student  of  the  legal  aspects  of  stage 
history  discovered  in  the  Prompter  the  keenest  apprecia- 
tion of  the  problem  of  regulation.  And  none  of  those  who 
mention  him  find  it  possible  to  be  merely  perfunctory. 
They  grow  cheerful  and  witty,  even  in  their  very  exaggera- 
tion of  his  power  to  bore ;  or  in  soberer  mood,  they  express 
a  curiosity  about  other  aspects  of  his  life  and  character 
than  those  they  touch  upon.  They  all  acknowledge  the 
generosity  and  kindliness  of  his  nature,  his  humanity  and 
politeness,  as  Dr.  Johnson  has  it, — a  tribute  that  can  be 
paid  without  reserve  to  very  few  of  the  greater  men  of  his 
time. 

This  reaction  of  the  modern  writer  is  in  itself  evidence  of 
the  interest  and  vigor  of  Hill's  personality.  His  faults — 
his  vanity,  self-confidence,  and  extravagance — are  obvious 
enough ;  they  brought  their  own  punishment  in  leading  him 
to  attempt  what  he  could  not  perform,  and  to  make  claims 
for  his  work  that  could  have  been  satisfied  only  by  a  trans- 
cendent genius.  But  though  he  did  habitually  overestimate 
the  talents  and  virtues  of  himself  and  of  his  friends,  he  had 
flashes  of  keen  insight  into  character;  he  had  imagination, 
evident  in  his  projects,  if  not  in  his  writings;  and  there  is 
even  now  and  then  a  gleam  of  poetry  in  his  verse  and  his 
prose.  Had  his  faculties  been  better  balanced,  had  he  been 
slightly  more  modest  in  his  own  estimation  of  his  talents, 
he  might  have  attained  secure  eminence  in  one  of  the  many 


278  AARON   HILL 

fields  of  his  activity.  As  it  is,  one  cannot  but  respect  in 
him  qualities  admirable  in  themselves,  whether  or  not  they 
bring  success  to  their  possessor, — the  tireless  energy  that 
cannot  endure  to  rust  in  idleness,  the  courage  that  looks 
upon  failure  only  as  an  incentive  to  further  effort.  Hill  in 
spirit  belongs  to  the  band  of  those 

"  Made  weak  by  time  and  fate,  but  strong  in  will 
To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find,  and  not  to  yield." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


LIST  OF  HILL'S  WEITINGS; 


1707.  Camillus.     A  Poem,  Humbly  inscrib'd  to  the  Right  Hon- 

orable Charles,  Earl  of  Peterborough  and  Monmouth. 
By  Aaron  Hill,  Gent.      London,  1707. 

1708.  The   Invasion:   A   Poem   to    the    Queen.      By   Mr.    Hill. 

London,  1708. 

The  celebrated  Speeches  of  Ajax  and  Ulysses,  for  the 
Armour  of  Achilles,  in  the  13th  Book  of  Ovid's  Meta- 
morphoses. Essay'd  in  English  Verse  by  Mr.  Tate, 
Poet  Laureat;  and  Aaron  Hill,   Gent.     London,   1708. 

1709.  A   full   and  just   Account   of  the  Present   State   of  the 

Ottoman  Empire  in  all  its  Branches:  with  the  Govern- 
ment, and  Policy,  Religion,  Customs,  and  Way  of 
Living  of  the  Turks,  in  General.  Faithfully  related 
from  a  Serious  Observation,  taken  in  many  Years 
Travels  thro'  those  Countries.  By  Aaron  Hill,  Gent. 
London,  1709. 

Second   edition,  with   editions    [sic],     London,   1710. 

Another  edition.      By  A.  H.     London,  1733. 

1710.  Elfrid,  or  the  Fair  Inconstant.     A  Tragedy,  as  it  is  acted 

at  the  Theatre  Royal  by  her  Majesty's  Servants.  To 
which  is  added.  The  Walking  Statue,  or  the  Devil  in 
the  Wine  Cellar.  A  Farce.  By  Mr.  Hill.  London, 
1710. 

Another   edition   of   The    Walking    Status.     London, 
1780? 

1711.  Rinaldo,  an   Opera,   as   it   is  performed  at   the    Queen's 

Theatre  in  London.  London,  1711. 
1714.  Dedication  of  the  Beech-Tree.  To  the  most  honourable 
the  Earl  of  Oxford,  Lord  High  Treasurer  of  Great 
Britain.  Occasioned  by  the  late  discovery  of  making 
Oil  from  the  fruit  of  that  Tree.  By  Aaron  Hill,  Esq. 
London,  1714. 

(Advertised  in  the  Post  Boy,  April  17-20,  1714.) 
279 


280  AARON    HILL 

An  impartial  account  of  the  nature,  benefit  and 
design,  of  a  new  discovery  and  undertaking,  to  make  a 
pure,  sweet,  and  wholesome  Oil,  from  the  Fruit  of  the 
Beech  Tree.  By  authority  of  her  Majesty's  Royal 
Letters  Patents,  under  the  great  seal  of  Great  Britain. 
With  particular  answers  to  every  Objection,  which  has 
been  made,  or  may  reasonably  be  conceived  against  it. 
And  proposals  for  raising  a  stock  not  exceeding  twenty 
thousand  pounds:  wherein  every  hundred  pounds  ad- 
vanced, will  entitle  to  an  annuity  for  fourteen  years,  of 
fifty  pounds  per  annum,  and  for  a  less  sum  propor- 
tionably,  upon  a  good  and  solid  security.     London,  1714. 

Proposals  for  raising  a  Stock  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds;  for  laying  up  great  quantities  of  Beech 
Mast  for  two  years,  at  an  Interest  of  Forty-Five 
Pounds  per  cent,  per  Annum,  to  the  Subscribers,  and 
upon  a  Security  whereby  they  will  ahvays  have  in 
their  own  Hands,  above  Ten  Times  the  Value  of  the 
Sum,  they  Contribute.  To  which  is  added,  a  particular 
account  of  the  nature,  benefit,  and  design  of  the  under- 
taking.    London,  1714. 

1715.  An  Account  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Beech-Oil 

Invention,  and  All  the  Steps  which  have  been  taken  in 
that  Affair,  from  the  first  discovery  to  the  present  time, 
as  also  what  is  further  designed  in  that  Undertaking. 
London,  1715, 

1716.  An   impartial   state    of   the   case   between    the   Patentee, 

Annuitants,  and  Sharers,  in  the  Beech-Oil  Company. 
Published  by  the  Patentee  as  well  in  Vindication  of  his 
own  Measures,  as  for  the  General  Satisfaction  of  all 
the  concern'd  Parties.      {A.  H.)      London,  1716. 

The  Fatal  Vision:  or.  The  Fall  of  Siam.     A  Tragedy: 
as  it  is  acted  at  the  New  Theatre  in  Lincoln' s-Inn-Fields, 
1716.     London.      [1716.] 
1718.     Four  Essays:  viz. 

1.  On  making  China  Ware  in  England,  as  good  as 
ever  was  brought  from  India. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  281 

2.  On  a  method  for  furnishing  Coals  at  a  Third  Part 
of  the  Price  they  are  usually  sold  at. 

3.  On  the  Eepairing  of  Dagenham,  or  other  Breaches. 

4.  On  our  English  Grapes,  proving  that  they  will  make 
the  best  of  Wines. 

By  a  Society  of  Gentlemen.  For  the  Universal  Benefit 
of  the  People  of  England.  Adorned  with  Four  Beauti- 
ful Cutis.      London,  1718. 

(A  MS.  note  in  the  British  Museum  copy  reads: 
"  The  Essays  were  first  publisht  under  this  title :  Essays, 
for  the  month  of  December,  1716,  to  be  continued 
monthly.  By  a  Society  of  Gentlemen.  London,  for 
J.  Roberts,  1716.") 

The  Northern-Star.  A  Poem.  Written  hy  Mr.  Hill. 
London,  1718. 

Second  edition.  The  Northern-Star:  a  poem  on  the 
great  and  glorious  actions  of  the  present  Czar  of  Russia: 
English  and  Latin.     London,  1724. 

(The  dedication  is  signed  by  Gilbert  Hill,  the  author 
of  the  translation.      The  preface  is  by  Aaron  Hill.) 

Third  edition.  The  Northern  Star.  A  Poem.  Sacred 
to  the  name  and  memory  of  the  Immortal  Czar  of 
Russia.     London,  1725. 

Fifth  edition.  The  Northern  Star:  A  Poem.  Orig- 
inally published  in  the  Life-time  of  Peter  Alexiovitz, 
Great  Czar  of  Russia.  The  fifth  edition,  revised  and 
corrected  by  the  Author.     London,  1739. 

(I  have  not  found  any  fourth  edition.) 
1720.  The  Creation.  A  Pindaric  illustration  of  a  Poem,  orig- 
inally written  by  Moses,  on  that  Subject.  With  a 
preface  to  Mr.  Pope,  concerning  the  sublimity  of  the 
Ancient  Hebrew  Poetry,  and  a  material  and  obvious 
Defect  in  the  English. 

(From  an  advertisement  published  in  the  Post  Boy, 
July  30,  1720.  The  poem  is  printed  in  Hill's  Worhs, 
1753,  IV,  189.  The  first  edition  is  not  in  the  libraries 
to  which  I  have  had  access.) 


282  AARON   HILL 

1721.     The   Judgement   Day.     A   Poem.     By   Aaron   Hill,   Esq. 
The  second  edition.     London.     [1721?] 

(The  poem  is  advertised  as  "this  day  published,"  in 
the  Post  Boy,  March  7-9,  1720-1721.  The  preface  in 
the  so-called  second  edition  is  dated  March  1,  1720- 
1721.      I  have  not  seen  a  first  edition.) 

The  Fatal  Extravagance,  a  Tragedy,  in  a  manner 
wholly  new:  As  it  is  acted  at  the  Theatre  in  Lineoln's- 
Inn-Fields,  with  great  applause. 

(From  an  advertisement  in  the  Post  Boy,  April  22- 
25,  1721— "on  Thursday  will  be  published."  A  later 
advertisement  in  the  same  paper  for  May  2  adds 
"  written  by  Mr.  Mitchel."  I  have  not  found  this 
edition.) 

Genest  notes  a  Dublin  edition  of  1721,  in  two  acts, 
and  another  of  1726. 

Fourth  edition.  The  Fatal  Extravagance:  a  Tragedy 
presented  at  the  Theatre  Royal  in  Lincoln' s-Inn-Fields, 
in  one  act;  hut  in  this  Fourth  edition  improved  into 
Five  Acts,  by  the  Addition  of  several  new  characters 
and  episodical  Incidents.  By  Joseph  Mitchell.  London, 
1726. 

Other  London  editions  of  1730  and  1753. 

The  Prodigal:  a  Dramatic  piece  [altered  from  the 
Fatal  Extravagance  of  J.  Mitchell,  or  rather  A.  H.]. 
London,  1794. 
1723.  King  Henry  the  Fifth,  or  the  Conquest  of  France  by  the 
English.  A  Tragedy.  As  acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal 
in  Drury  Lane.     London,  1723. 

(Advertised  in  the  Daily  Courant,  Dec.  10,  1723.) 

Another  edition.     London,  1759. 

Another  edition.     London,  1765. 
1724-1725.     The  Plain  Dealer.      (The  British  Museum  copy  is 
imperfect,  lacking  nos.  28,  29,  31,  42,  46,  53,  91-98, 
102-117.) 

The  Plain  Dealer:  Being  Select  Essays  on  several 
curious  subjects,  relating  to  Friendship,  Love,  and  Gal- 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  283 

lantry,  Marriage,  Morality,  Mercantile  Affairs,  Paint- 
ing, History,  Poetry,  and  Other  Branches  of  Polite 
Literature.  Published  originally  in  the  Year  1724,  and 
now  first  collected  into  Two  Volumes.     London,  1730. 

Second  edition.  London,  1734.  (This  contains  the 
dedication  by  "William  Bond  to  Lord  Hervey.  The 
frontispiece  pictures  a  gentleman  seated  at  a  table,  pen 
in  hand,  listening  to  the  discourse  of  a  lady  with  lux- 
uriant hair;  another  lady,  helmeted  and  draped,  spear 
in  hand,  points  to  a  painting  on  the  wall,  which  depicts 
some  sort  of  aerial  battle  directed  by  still  a  third  lady; 
the  devil  is  seated  in  meditation  at  the  gentleman's  feet.) 

1730.  The  progress  of  wit:  a  caveat.     For  the  use  of  an  eminent 

writer.  By  a  fellow  of  All-Souls.  To  which  is  prefixed, 
an  explanatory  discourse  to  the  reader.  By  Gamaliel 
Gunson,  professor  of  Physic  and  Astrology.  London, 
1730. 

1731.  Advice  to  the  Poets.     A  Poem.     To  xvhich  is  prefixed,  an 

Epistle  dedicatory  to  the  few  Great  Spirits  of  Great 
Britain.     Written  by  Mr.  Hill.     London,  1731. 

(Advertised  in  the  Daily  Journal  of  March  23.) 

Athelwold:  a  Tragedy.  As  it  is  acted  at  the  Theatre- 
Boyal  in  Drury-Lane,  by  his  Majesty's  Servants.  Lon- 
don, 1731. 

Second  edition.     London,  1732. 

Another  edition.     Dublin,  1732. 

Another  edition.     London,  1760. 
1734r-1736.     The  Prompter.     (The   British   Museum   copy   lacks 
nos.  138  and  158;  that  in  the  Library  of  Yale  Univer- 
sity lacks  nos.  24,  84,  93,  116,  138,  152.) 
1736.     The  Tragedy  of  Zara,  as  it  is  acted  at  the  Theatre  Boyal 
in  Drury-Lane.      London,  1736. 

Other  separate  London  editions  in  1736,  1752,  1763, 
1778,  1791,  1803. 

Dublin  editions  of  1737  and  1762. 

Published  also  in  Bell's  British  Theatre,  1  (1776), 
17    (1797);    English    Theatre,    10    (1776);    Inchbald's 


284  AARON    HILL 

British  Theatre,  7  (1808) ;  Modern  British  Drama,  2 
(1811);  Dibdin's  London  Theatre,  19  (1814-1818); 
London  Stage,  4  (1824^1827);  Inehbald's  British 
Theatre,  6  (1824) ;  British  Drama,  2  (1824) ;  Cvunber- 
land's  British  Drama,  13;  British  Drama,  2  (Phila- 
delphia, 1850). 

Alzira,  a  Tragedy,  as  it  is  acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal 
in  Lincoln' s-Inn-Fields.      London,  1736. 

Other  separate  London  editions  in  1744,  1779,  1791. 

An  Edinburgh  edition  of  1755.  {Select  Collection 
of  English  Plays,  vol.  2.) 

Published  also  in  Bell's  British  Theatre,  10  (1777), 
7  (1797) ;  and  British  Drama,  2  (1824). 

1737.  The  Tears  of  the  Muses:  in  a  Conference  between  Prince 

Germanicus  and  a  Male-content  Party.  London,  1737. 
(Dedicated  to  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of 
Learning. ) 

1738.  Enquiry  into  the  Merit  of  Assassination:  with  a  View  to 

the  character  of  Caesar;  and  his  designs  on  the  Roman 
Republic.      London,  1738. 

1743.  The  Fanciad:   an   heroic   Poem  in   Six   cantos.     To   his 

Grace  the  DuJce  of  Marlborough,  on  the  Turn  of  his 
Genius  to  Arms.     London,  1743. 

1744.  The   Impartial.     An   address    without   flattery.     Being    a 

poet's  free  thoughts  on  the  situation  of  our  public 
affairs  anno  1744.      London,  1744. 

(This  called  forth  in  the  same  year  a  reply  from 
"  Antiquae,"  entitled  A  Poet's  Impartial  Reply  to  a 
Poem  entitled  The  Impartial;  "  I  have  not  attempted," 
he  says  in  the  preface,  "  to  imitate  your  lofty  style ;  and 
though  our  sentiments  pretty  nearly  agree,  yet  I  have 
only  given  you  a  sketch  of  mine  in  a  different  light.") 
1746.  The  Art  of  Acting.  Deriving  rules  from  a  new  principle 
for  touching  the  passions  in  a  natural  manner.  Part  I. 
London,  1746. 

Free  Thoughts  on  Faith:  or,  the  Religion  of  Reason. 
A  Poem. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  285 

(From  an  advertisement  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 
for  July,  1746.  The  poem  is  printed  in  Hill's  Works, 
1753,  IV,  217.  I  have  not  seen  this  separate  edition.) 
1749.  Gideon,  or  the  Patriot.  An  Epic  Poem  in  Twelve  Books. 
Upon  a  Hebreio  Plan.  In  honour  of  the  two  chief 
Virtues  of  a  people:  Intrepidity  in  Foreign  War,  and 
spirit  of  domestic  Liberty.  With  miscellaneous  Notes, 
and  large  reflections  upon  different  Subjects:  Critical, 
Historical,  Political,  Geographic,  Military,  and  Com- 
mercial.     {By  A.  H.)      London,  1749. 

Merope:  a  Tragedy.     Acted  at  the  Theatre-Royal  in 
•  Drury-Lane,  by  his  Majesty's  Servants.     By  Aaron  Hill, 
Esq.     London,  1749. 

Other  separate  London  editions  in  1753,  1758,  1777, 
1786,  1803. 

An  Edinburgh  edition  of  1755. 

Published  also  in  Bell's  British  Theatre,  10  (1776), 
23  (1797);  and  the  English  Theatre,  4  (1776). 
1751.  A  Collection  of  Letters  never  before  printed:  written  by 
Alexander  Pope,  Esq;  and  other  ingenious  Gentlemen, 
to  the  late  Aaron  Hill,  Esq.  London,  1751. 
1753.  The  Works  of  the  Late  Aaron  Hill,  Esq;  in  four  volumes. 
Consisting  of  Letters  on  Various  Subjects,  and  of 
Original  Poems,  Moral  and  Facetious.  With  an  Essay 
on  the  Art  of  Acting.  Printed  for  the  Benefit  of  the 
Family.     London,  1753. 

(The  first  two  volumes  contain  the  letters  and  the  last 
two  the  poems.  Many  of  the  poems  have  already  been 
noted  in  earlier  editions.  The  most  important  are  the 
following:  The  Reconciliation,  To  Mr.  James  Thomson, 
St.  Matthew,  Chapters  V,  VI,  VII,  Bellaria  at  her  Spin- 
net,  An  Ode  on  Occasion  of  Mr.  Handel's  great  Te  Deum, 
The  Dream,  The  Northern  Star,  The  Picture  of  Love, 
Advice  to  the  Poets,  The  Impartial,  A  Dialogue  between 
Damon  and  Philemon,  To  the  Unknoivn  Author  of  the 
Beautiful  New  Piece  called  Pamela,  The  Progress  of 
Wit,  The  Art  of  Acting,  and  The  Dedication  of  the  Beech- 


286  AAEON    HILL 

Tree  (all  in  Volume  III) ;  Verses  made  for  Mr.  S-v-ge, 
On  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu's  bringing  with  her  out 
of  Turkey  the  Art  of  Inoculating  the  Smallpox,  To  the 
Editor  of  Clarissa,  The  Actor's  Epitome,  The  Muse  to 
the  Writer — a  Translation  from  the  French  of  DuBartas, 
The  104th  Psalm,  The  Tears  of  the  Muses,  The  Creation, 
Camillus,  Free  Thoughts  upon  Faith,  Sareph  and  Hamar 
— an  Episode  from  Gideon,  The  Judgement-Day,  Cleon 
to  Lycidas,  The  Excursion  of  Fancy — a  Pindaric  Ode, 
and  Amoris  Pictura  (in  Volume  IV).  There  are  also 
many  short  poems, — epigrams  and  love  poenis;  and 
many  prologues  and  epilogues.  The  prose  Essay  on  the 
Art  of  Acting  is  printed  at  the  end  of  Volimie  IV.) 
Second  edition.     London,  1754. 

1754.  The  Roman  Revenge,  a  Tragedy.  2nd  edition.  London, 
1754. 

1758.     The  Insolvent,  or  Filial  Piety,  a  Tragedy.     London,  1758. 

1760.  The  Dramatic  Works  of  Aaron  Hill,  Esq.  In  two  volumes. 
London,  1760.  Contents:  Life  of  the  Author,  Elf  rid, 
Walking  Statue,  Rinaldo,  Fatal  Vision,  King  Henry  V, 
Fatal  Extravagance,  Merlin  in  Love,  Athelwold,  Muses 
in  Mourning,  Zara,  Snake  in  the  Grass,  Alzira,  Saul, 
Daraxes,  Merope,  Roman  Revenge,  Insolvent  or  Filial 
Piety,  Love  Letters. 

Most  of  these  plays  have  been  discussed  in  the  text. 
The  Muses  in  Mourning  is  a  short  opera,  with  Apollo, 
the  Muses,  and  the  Geniuses  of  Spain,  France,  Holland, 
and  England,  as  the  characters.  Merlin  in  Love  is  a 
pantomime  opera,  in  which  Harlequin  and  Columbine 
take  part.  Saul  is  a  tragedy,  of  which  the  fii'st  act  only 
was  completed.  Daraxes  is  a  pastoral  opera,  of  two  acts : 
Daraxes,  an  Indian  general,  invades  a  peaceful  com- 
munity of  shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  in  his  flight  from 
a  Persian  foe.  "  Amorous  and  gallant  scenes  "  between 
Daraxes  and  the  shepherdesses  are  interrupted  by  the 
aiTival  of  the  Persian  soldiers.  After  much  conversa- 
tion,  Daraxes  discovers  his  lost   father  in   the   Persian 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  287 

general.     The   opera   concludes   with   marriages   and   a 
shephei'ds'  dance.     It  would  be  interesting  to  the  student 
of  the  pastoral  to  know  the  date  of  this  effort  of  Hill's. 
It  may  have  been  written  and  refused  by  the  managers 
about  the  time  the  first  act  was  printed  in  the  Prompter 
(Januaiy  23,  1736). 
1821.     The  Actor,  or  Guide  to  the  Stage:  exemplifying  the  whole 
art    of   Acting;   in   which    the   Dramatic   Passions    are 
defined,  analyzed,  and  made  easy  of  Acquirement.     The 
whole  interspersed  with  Select  and  Striking  Examples 
from  the  most  popular  modern  pieces.     London,  1821. 
(An  arrangement  of  Aaron  Hill's  prose  essay.) 
There  are  selections  from  Hill's  poetry  in  the  following: 
The  British  Poets,  volume  8,  Edinburgh,  1794. 
Southey's  Specimens,  Volume  II,  1807. 
S.  J.  Pratt's  Cabinet  of  Poetry,  volume  3,  London, 
1808. 

Park's  British  Poets,  volume  45,  London,  1808. 
British  Poets,  volume  60,  Chiswick,  1822. 
For  Hill's  correspondence  see  also  Elwin  and  Courthope's 
edition  of  Pope,  volume  X,  and  Mrs.  Barbauld's  edition  of 
Richardson's  Correspondence,  I,  1-132.  The  correspondence  in 
the  Forster  MSS.  at  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  at  South 
Kensington  is  contained  in  Folio  XIII  (2),  Folio  XIV  (1),  and 
Folio  XV.  Hill's  letters  are  chiefly  in  Folio  XIII,  and  those 
of  Urania  Johnson  in  Folio  XIV.  The  letter  from  the  Hill  girls 
about  Tom  Jones  is  in  Folio  XV. 

Works  ascribed  to  Hill: 

The  Works  of  Lucian,  translated  from  the  Greek  by  several 
eminent  hands.  London,  1711.  (The  eminent  hands  are  Dryden 
T.  Feme,  W.  Moyle,  Sir  H.  Sheere,  A.  Baden,  Sprag,  Hill, 
S.  Atkinson,  H.  Blount,  Ayloffe,  J.  Philips,  L.  Eachard,  C. 
Eaehard,  Savage,  J.  Digby,  Hare,  J.  Washington,  N.  Tate,  Sir 
J.  Tyrell,  C.  Blount,  T.  Brown,  J.  Drake,  S.  Cobb,  Gildon, 
Cashem,  Vernon.  The  Tyrant  Killer  (Vol.  II,  443-i62),  and 
Dipsas  (Vol.  II,  463-469),  are  by  Mr.  Hill.     The  style  of  these 


288  AARON    HILL 

short  prose  selections  is  simple  and  not  at  all  suggestive  of  Hill's, 
though  he  may  possibly  be  the  translator.  More  probably,  the 
"Mr.  Hill"  concerned  in  the  Original  Poems  (see  infra)  is  the 
"Mr.  Hill"  of  these  translations.) 

The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  paraphrased;  a  divine  poem;  by  A. 
Hill.  Newcastle,  1712.  (Ascribed  in  the  catalogue  of  the 
Bodleian  Library  to  Aaron  Hill.  It  is  the  work  of  a  minister — 
the  author  declares  in  the  preface  that  he  prefers  the  character 
of  a  preacher  to  that  of  a  poet.  The  style  is  very  prosaic,  and 
quite  different  from  that  of  Hill's  paraphrases.) 

Original  Poems  and  Translations.  By  Mr.  Hill,  Mr.  Eusden, 
Mr.  Broome,  Dr.  King,  etc.  Never  before  printed.  London, 
1714.  (Ascribed  with  a  question  in  the  British  Museum  cata- 
logue to  Aaron  Hill.  The  poem  by  Mr.  Hill  (pp.  8-10)  is 
On  the  Death  of  Vulcan,  of  sordid  memory,  an  old  Servant  at 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  The  poem  exhibits  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  Trinity  College  customs;  it  has  no  marks  of  Hill's 
style;  and  he  had,  so  far  as  I  know,  no  connection  with  Trinity 
College;  his  brother  was  at  Clare  Hall  five  years  earlier.  On  the 
last  page  of  the  pamphlet,  among  the  advertisements,  under 
Musae  Britannicae,  is  Rationes  Boni  et  Mali  sunt  eternae  et 
immutabiles.  Per  T.  Hill,  e.  Col.  Trin.  Soc.  This  Thomas  Hill 
was  a  fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  the  author  (see 
B.  M.  catalogue)  of  Nundinae  Sturbrigienses,  1702;  adjiciuntur 
duo  alia  poemata,  London,  1709.) 
Biographies  and  principal  biographical  notices  of  Hill: 

The  Lives  of  the  Poets  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  By  Mr. 
Cibber  and  other  hands.  London,  1753.  Volume  V,  pp.  252- 
276. 

(Note  on  page  252 — "  This  was  sent  us  by  an  unknown  hand.") 

The  Life  of  Aaron  Hill,  Esq.  By  I.  K.  In  the  Dramatic 
Works  of  Aaron  Hill,  I,  i-xx.     London,  1760. 

Biographia  Britannica:  or,  the  Lives  of  the  Most  Eminent 
Persons  who  have  flourished  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  .  .  . 
to  which  are  added,  a  Supplement  and  Appendix,  etc.  6  volumes. 
London,  1766.     Supplement,  pp.  97-98. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  289 

Davies,  Thomas:  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  David  Garriek,  etc. 
London,  17S0.     Volume  I,  chapter  XIII. 

British  Poets,  volume  VIII.  Edinburgh,  1794.  Life  of  Hill 
by  R.  Anderson. 

Biographia  Dramatica:  or,  a  Companion  to  the  Playhouse,  etc. 
(Carried  to  the  year  1764  by  D.  E.  Baker;  continued  to  1782  by 
Isaac  Reed,  and  to  1811  by  Stephen  Jones.)  3  volumes.  Lon- 
don, 1812.     Volume  I,  Part  I,  p.  334  f . 

British  Poets,  volume  60.  Chiswick,  1822.  Life  of  Hill  by 
R.  A.  Davenport. 

Article  by  Leslie  Stephen  in  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography. 

The  chief  authorities  used  in  the  chapters  on  the  stage  are  the 
following : 

Baker,  David  Erskine:  The  Companion  to  the  Playhouse,  or 
an  Historical  Account  of  all  the  Dramatic  Writers  and  their 
Works.  .  .  .  From  the  Commencement  of  our  Theatrical  Exhibi- 
tions down  to  the  present  year  1764,  etc.  2  volumes.  London, 
1764. 

Baker,  H.  Barton:  The  London  Stage:  its  History  and  Tradi- 
tions from  1576  to  1903.     2  volumes.     London,  1904. 

Bumey,  Charles :  A  General  History  of  Music  from  the  Earliest 
Ages  to  the  Present  Period.     London,  1789.      (Volume  IV.) 

Cibber,  CoUey:  An  Apology  for  the  Life  of  Colley  Cibber, 
Comedian,  and  late  Patentee  of  the  Theatre-Royal,  etc.  Edited 
with  notes  by  R.  W.  Lowe.     2  volumes.     London,  1889. 

Cooke,  William:  Memoirs  of  Charles  Macklin,  Comedian,  with 
the  Dramatic  Characters,  Manners,  Anecdotes,  etc.,  of  the  Age 
in  which  he  lived,  etc.     2nd  edition.     London,  1806. 

Davies,  Thomas :  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  David  Garriek,  inter- 
spersed with  Characters  and  Anecdotes  of  his  theatrical  Contem- 
poraries, etc.     2  volumes.     London,  1780. 

Dibdin,  C. :  History  of  the  Stage.  5  volumes.  London 
(1800?). 

Fitzgerald,  Percy  H. :  A  New  History  of  the  English  Stage 
from  the  Restoration  to  the  Liberty  of  the  Theatres,  etc.     2  vol- 
umes.    London,  1882. 
20 


290  AARON   HILL 

Genest,  John:  Some  Account  of  the  English  Stage,  from  the 
Best  oration  in  1660  to  1830.  10  volumes.  Bath,  1832.  (Vol- 
umes II,  III,  IV.) 

Lounsbury,  Thomas  R. :  Shakespeare  and  Voltaire.  New  York, 
1902. 

Nicholson,  Watson :  The  Struggle  for  a  Free  Stage  in  London. 
Boston  and  New  York,  1906. 

A  Proposal  for  the  better  Regulation  of  the  Stage,  with  some 
Bemarks  on  the  State  of  the  Theatres  among  the  Ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans.     London,  1732. 

Ralph,  James:  The  Taste  of  the  Town,  or  a  guide  to  all  Puh- 
liek  Diversions.     London,  1731. 

A  Seasonable  Examination  of  the  pleas  and  pretensions  of 
the  proprietors  of,  and  subscribers  to,  playhouses  erected  in 
defiance  of  the  royal  license,  with  some  brief  Observations  on  the 
printed  case  of  the  Players  belonging  to  Drury-Lane  and  Covent 
Garden  Theatres.     London,  1735. 

Victor,  Benjamin :  The  History  of  the  Theatres  of  London  and 
Dublin  from  the  year  1730  to  the  present  Time,  etc.  2  volumes. 
London,  1761. 


INDEX 


Account  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  Bermudas,  48-49,  74. 

of  the  Beech  Oil  Invention,  An,  Betterton,    Thomas,    76,    77,    78, 

30,  38-40,  280.  80n.,  86. 

Addison,  Joseph,  87,  92,  153,  155,  Bickerstaff  (actor),  83,  84. 

156.  Billingsley,  Case,  60  and  n. 

Advice  to  the  Poets,  15,  218-219,  Biographia  Dramatica,  82. 


283. 
Alatamaha   (river),  50,  55n.,  75. 
Almahide,  88. 

Alzira,  145-147,  241,  250,  284. 
Ames,  J.  G.,  The  Eng.  Lit.  Per.  of 

Morals  and  Manners,  17n. 
Arbuthnot,  Dr.,  233,  234. 
ArnaU,  W.,  153. 
Arsinoe,  87. 
Art    of    Acting,    The,    130,    247, 

257n.,  284. 
Astell,  Mary,  159n. 
Athelwold,  114-118,  221,  222,  224,    Brett,  Col.,   78. 


Blackmore,  Sir  Eichard,  167n. 

Blinman,  Dr.  J.,  206n. 

Board  of  Trade,  48,  54. 

Bolingbroke,  Henry  St.  John,  vis- 
count, 15n.,  153,  155,  235,  237, 

Bond,  William,  25n.,  141,  142,  156, 
157,  160,  189,  205n. 

Booth,  Barton,  2,  80,  83,  84,  95, 
96  and  n.,  104,  107-109,  113, 
118,  120,  126-127. 

Bowman,  Walter,  186. 

Bradley,  James,  60. 


226n.,   228,  283. 
Athenian  Gazette,  The,  17. 
Athenian  Mercury,  The,  17. 
Attorney- General,  the,  53,  54. 
Aurengesehe,  80. 


British  ApoUo,  The,  16-18,  21  and 

n.,  83  and  n.,  91,  155. 
British  Journal,  The,  189n.,  275. 
Budgell,  Eustace,  228,  230. 
Burlington,  Lord,  116. 


Azilia,  Margravate  of,  50-56,  57,    Burney's  Eist.  of  Music,  87  and  n. 


58. 

Barnard,  Sir  John,  137,  140, 
Barnstaple  Grammar  School,  2. 
Barnwell,  Col.  John,  57. 
Bathurst,  Lord,  116. 
Bee,  The,  228  and  n. 
Beech-Oil  Stock  Company,  33,  35- 

36,  37,  38-39,  40-42,  43. 
Beggar  ^s  Opera,  113. 
Berkeley,  George,  74,  243. 


Burt,    Capt.    Edward,    62-63,    64, 

68  and  n. 
Busby,  Dr.,  2. 

Caesar     (Hill's    play),    see     The 

Boman  Bevenge. 
Caesar    (character   of),   147,   148, 

235. 
Cambridge  Hist,  of  Eng.  Lit.,  4n. 
Camilla,  87. 
Camillus,  9,  13,  279. 


291 


292  INDEX 

Campbell,  Harry,  255-257.  Collier,  Wm.,  79,  80,  83,  86  and  n., 

Carolina,    49,    50,    53.      See    also  94,  95. 

under  Azilia.  Commentator,  The,  61. 

Carteret,  John,  Earl  of  Granville,  Commissioners  for  Trade,  53. 

2,  50.  Compton,  Sir  Spencer,  195-196. 

Cato,  95,  149n.  Concanen,  Matthew,  185,  187. 

Caveat,  The.    See  The  Progress  of  Congreve,  Wm.,  78,  82,  95,  164. 

Wit.  Cooke,  Charles,  53. 

Celebrated  Speeches  of  Ajax  and  Cooke,  Thomas,  185. 

Ulysses,  The,  20-21,  279.  Corneille,  Pierre,  151. 

Censor,  The,  155.  Court  Tales,  42n. 

Chandos,  Duke  of,  163n.,  222,  223,  Courthope,   W.   J.    (quoted),   202, 

224.  207,  212,  218,  220. 

Charitable     Corporation     for     the  Covent  Garden  Theatre,  77. 

Eelief  of  the  Industrious  Poor,  Craftsman,  The,  155. 

71-72.  Creation,   The,   165n.,    171n.,   204, 

Charles  II,   77.  205,  281. 

Cheats  of  Scapin,  The,  110.  Cunningham's     Growth     of    Eng. 

Chesterfield,  Earl  of,  74.  Industry     and     Commerce,     28, 

Chinaware,  44-45,  59.  45n.,  63n. 

Cibber,    Colley,   78,   79n.,   86,   94,  Cupid  and  Bacchus,  110. 

95,  96,  113,  118,  120,  126,  146, 

263,  268.  Dagenham    Breach     (repair    of), 

Cibber,  Susanna  Maria,  142.  46  and  n. 

Cibber,  Theophilus,  118-119,  142n.,  Daily  Courant,  The,  21n. 

150n.  Daily  Journal,  The,  208,  229. 

Gibber's  Lives   (quoted),  3,  9-10,  Daily  Post,  The,  64n. 

11,  14,  51,  66,  67,  68,  98,  156,  Daraxes,  134,  286-287. 

166n.,  170,  etc.  Davenant,  Sir  William,  77. 

Citizen,  The,  73  and  n.  Davies,  Thomas  (quoted),  111-112, 

Clarissa   Harlowe,    240,   243,    251,  115,  126,  131  and  n.,  135n.,  142, 

256n.,  260-269.  143,  147,  220n. 

"Clio,"    172,    185,    187,    188-192,  Dedication  of  the  Beech  Tree,  The, 

198.  34-35,  46,  63,  279. 

Coals  (project  for  the  manufacture  Defoe,  Daniel,  12n.,  25n.,  29,  31n., 

of),  45-46,  59.  155. 

Cobbett's      Parliamentary     Eist.,  Dennis,  John,  95,  163n.,  164-169, 

60n.  207,  227. 

Collections   of   the   Hist.    Soc.    of  Description  of  the  Golden  Islands, 

South  Carolina,  53n.,  58n.,  62n.,  54n.,  56-57. 

71n.  Dibdin's  Stage  (quoted),  94. 


INDEX 


293 


Discourse  concerning  the  Besign'd 

Establishment  of  a  New  Colony 

to  the  South  of  Carolina,  51-52. 
Dobson,  Austin,  240n.,  241. 
Doctor,  The,  156. 
Doctor  Faustus,  110. 
Dodington,  Bubb,  198. 
Dogget  (actor),  94. 
Dramatic  Poetaster,  The,  134n. 
Drury-Lane    Theatre,    77,    78,    80, 

86,  100,  104,  110,  111,  114,  119, 

122,  151,  162. 
Dryden,  John,  82,  95,  228n. 
Dunciad,  The,  113  and  n.,  208-209, 

211,  212,  214,  217,  218,  219,  220, 

239. 
Dunton,  John,  17. 
Dyer,  John,  32n.,  166n.,  172,  185, 

187,  188n.,  189,  190. 

Edwards,  Thomas,  260n. 

mfrid,  80-81,  90n.,  114,  279. 

EUis,  Mr.,  118,  120. 

Elson,  Arthur,  his  Hist,  of  Opera 
quoted,  89. 

Englishman,  The,  35n.,  155. 

Essay  on  Man,  236,  237,  238. 

Essay  on  Propriety  and  Impro- 
priety, etc.,  215,  218,  232,  234 
and  n.,  237. 

Etearco,  88. 

Examiner,  The,  34n.,  35n.,  155. 

Fair  QuaTcer  of  Deal,  The,  82. 
Fanciad,  The,  15n.,  247-248,  250n., 

260,  284. 
Farquhar,  George,  82,  95. 
Fatal    Doivry,    The    (Massinger's 

play),  150n. 
Fatal  Extravagance,  The,  97-100, 

170,  171n.,  282. 
Fatal  Vision,  The,  95-97,  164,  280. 


Female  Tatler,  The,  18. 

Fielding,  General,  241. 

Fielding,  Henry,  101,  111,  125,  133, 

134  and  n.,  135,  139,  268,  269, 

270-271,  272,  273,  277. 
Fitzgerald,    Percy    H.,    his    New 

Hist,  of  the  Eng.  Stage  quoted, 

83-85,  lOln. 
Fleetwood,  John,  119, 122,  135-136. 
Fog's  Journal,  211n.,  275. 
Forster  MS.,  240,  287;  quoted,  2, 

48,  73,  122,  etc. 
Four  Essays,  43,  280-281. 
Fowke,  Martha.     See   "Clio." 
Free  ThinTcer,  The,  156. 

Garrick,  David,  76,  101,  115,  131, 

149n.,  151. 
Gay,  John,  2,  16,  18,  74,  116. 
Gazetteer,  The,  239. 
Gentleman's    Magazine    (quoted), 

130n.,   132n.,    133n.,   135n.,   141, 

167,  184. 
George  I,  95,  202. 
George  Barnwell,  113. 
Georgia,  50,  52n.,  58,  124  and  n. 
Gideon,  124,  166,  185,  187,  188n., 

247,  251,  254n.,  273,  285. 
Giffard  (theatrical  manager),  118, 

135,  139n. 
Gildon,  Chas.,  95,  164. 
Glover,  E.,  247. 
Golden   Groves  of  Abernethy,   66, 

75,  154. 
Golden  Islands,  56-58,  59,  75. 
Golden  Bump,  The,  139. 
Goodman's    Fields    Theatre,    101, 

113,  118,  135,  139n.,  140. 
Grahame,  Governor,  241. 
Grant,  Sir  Archibald,  71. 
Grant,  Eev.  John,  70. 


294 


INDEX 


Gregory,  Mrs.  Ann,  1,  4. 

Grub   Street  Journal,   The,   123n., 

126,  134n.,  224,  228-232. 
Guardian,   The,   155. 
Gustavus  Vasa,  140. 

EabakJculc  (Hill's  metrical  ver- 
sion), 163n. 

Half-Pay  Officers,  104. 

Hamlet,  127-128. 

Handel,  Georg,  75,  86,  88  and  n., 
92,  93,  94. 

Harlequin.    See  Pantomime. 

Harlequin  Sorcerer,  111. 

Harlequin  Horace,  134n. 

Harley,  Robert,  Earl  of  Oxford, 
15n.,  34,  155,  226. 

Harper   (actor),  119. 

Haymarket  opera-house,  78,  86,  91, 
104,  110. 

Haywood,  Mrs.  Eliza,  185-187, 
188,  189n. 

Henley,  "Orator,"  153. 

Henry  V  (Hill's),  104-109,  154, 
187,  282. 

(Earl  of  Orrery's),  107n. 

Hervey,  Lord,  156,  242n. 

Highmore,  John,  118-121,  141. 

Hill,  Aaron,  birth  and  education, 
1-4;  travels  in  the  East,  4-9; 
adventure  in  the  catacombs,  7-8 ; 
return  to  England,  9;  travels 
with  William  Wentworth,  10-11; 
description  of,  11,  220n.;  rela- 
tions with  the  Earl  of  Peter- 
borough, 13-15 ;  assists  Gay,  16 ; 
connection  with  the  British 
Apollo,  16-19 ;  The  Invasion,  19- 
20;  collaborates  with  Tate,  20- 
21;  his  Ottoman  Empire,  21-26; 
marriage,  26;  his  "projecting" 


spirit,  29,  38-39,  43,  74-75,  275 
the  beech-mast  project,  29-43 
scheme  for  remitting  the  land 
tax,  34 ;  the  Four  Essays,  43-47 
vineyard  experiments  and  theo 
ries,  46-49 ;  illness,  48,  242-243 
joins  Sir  Eobert  Montgomery  in 
Carolina  colonizing  scheme,  50- 
55;  potash  experiments,  51,  64; 
treasurer  of  the  Golden  Islands, 
56-58 ;  his  projects  ridiculed,  58, 
64,  69,  230;  agent  of  the  York 
Buildings  Company,  59-71;  in- 
troduces rafting  in  the  High- 
lands, 67 ;  later  projecting  ideas, 
73-74;  his  versatility,  75,  152, 
275-276;  tributes  to,  26,  82-83, 
91,  98,  131n.,  171,  178,  179,  186, 
187,  188,  194,  198n.,  256n.;  man- 
ager of  Drury-Lane,  80-86; 
director  of  the  opera,  86-94;  his 
Fatal  Vision  produced,  95-97; 
views  on  acting,  96,  114,  121- 
122,  126-131,  132n.,  142;  rela- 
tions with  Joseph  Mitchell,  97- 
98,  170-173;  his  Fatal  Extrava- 
gance, 97-100;  schemes  for 
theatrical  management,  101-104, 
114,  120-121,  136-137,  199;  fail- 
ure of  his  Henry  V,  104-109; 
opposition  to  pantomime,  110, 
112-113,  133-134;  views  upon 
stage  regulation,  114,  137-139, 
140-141;  production  of  Athel- 
wold,  114-118;  criticism  of  the- 
atrical managers,  120-121,  135- 
136,  138-139;  edits  the  Promp- 
ter, 122-139;  his  translations  of 
Voltaire's  plays,  141-151;  edits 
the  Plain  Dealer,  154-161;  his 
literary  style,  156,  162,  166,  231; 


INDEX 


29 


relations  with  Young,  161-164; 
relations  with  Dennis,  164-169; 
his  scriptural  paraphrases,  164- 
165 ;  relations  with  Mallet,  173- 
177,  247-250,  252,  274;  cham- 
pions Savage,  177-184;  relations 
with  Eliza  Haywood,  185-187; 
relations  with  ' '  Clio, ' '  188-192 ; 
relations  with  Thomson,  192- 
200;  relations  with  Pope,  201- 
238  (see  under  Pope) ;  writes 
The  Northern  Star,  201-206, 
The  Progress  of  Wit,  209-211, 
Advice  to  the  Poets,  218-219; 
relations  with  Eichardson,  238- 
274  (see  under  Eichardson) ; 
financial  troubles,  241,  251;  law- 
suit, 244-245;  family  troubles, 
245-247;  literary  work  at  Plais- 
tow,  247-254;  death,  273-274; 
estimate  of  his  achievements 
and  character,  275-278. 

Hm,  Mrs.,  wife  of  Aaron  Hill,  26, 
66,  68,  69,  70n.,  172,  185,  191n., 
221, 

Hill,  Astraea,  26,  242,  243,  269, 
270-273. 

Hill,  George,  father  of  Aaron  Hill, 
1. 

Hill,  Gilbert,  brother  of  Aaron,  1, 
14n.,  83,  84,  205,  241,  273n. 

Hill,  Julius,  son  of  Aaron  Hill, 
26,  48,  246-247. 

Hill,  Minerva,  26,  269,  270-273. 

HiU,  Urania,  26,  71n.,  195,  211, 
218,  221,  246,  273n. 

Hill,  — ,  nephew  of  Aaron  Hill, 
141-143. 

"Hillarius."    See  Hill,  A.-ron. 

Hist.  MSS.  Comm.,  102,  249. 

Historical  Begister,  The,  133,  139. 


Hive,  The,  177. 
Hogarth,  William,  112. 
Homer,  174. 
Horace  (odes),  247. 
Horsey,  Col.  Samuel,  59,  62  and  n., 
65,  67,  68,  71n.,  102,  276. 

"I.  K., "  his  Life  of  Hill  quoted, 

4,  51. 
Idaspe  fedele,  88. 
Impartial,  The,  2,  247,  260,  284. 
Impartial  Accoimt  of  ...  a  new 

Discovery  .  .  .  to  make  Oil,  etc., 

31-33,  280. 
Insolvent,  The,  150n.,  286. 
Instructor,  The,  156. 
Invasion,  The,  19-20,  279. 
Inverness,  63,  64,  66. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  114n.,  157,  177, 

178,   182,   183n.,   184,   193,   216, 

224n.,  277. 
Johnson,   — ,   husband   of   Urania 

Hill,  246. 
Johnson,  Urania.    See  Hill,  Urania. 
Jonson,  Ben,  112. 
Judgment  Day,  The,  163n.,  165n., 

170,  171n.,  282. 

Keene  (actor),  83,  84,  96. 

Keith,  Sir  William,  73  and  n. 

Kent,  Marquis  of,  82. 

Key  to  the  Bape  of  the  LocTc,  209. 

Key  to  Three  Hours  after  Mar- 
riage, 16. 

Killigrew,  Sir  Thomas,  77. 

Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle, 
The,  175n.,  176. 

Knipe,  Dr.  Thomas,  3. 

La  Mort  de  Cesar,  147,  148. 
Lear,  128,  145. 


296 


INDEX 


Lecky's    Eighteenth    Century 

(quoted),  28n.,  34n.,  202n. 
Lee,  Nathaniel,  95. 
Leigh  (actor),  84,  85. 
Lessing,  G.  E.,  143  and  n. 
Liberty,  188n.,  198-199,  200. 
Licensing  Act,  76,  139-141. 
Life  of  Mr.  John  Dennis,  167-168. 
Life  of  Savage,  178,  183. 
Lincoln  's-Inn-Fields    theatre,    77, 

86,  95,  98,  110,  113,  145,  167. 
Lintot,  Bernard,  201,  202,  203,  204. 
Little  Theatre  in  the  Haymarket, 

101,  102,  103,  104,  113,  119,  120, 

135,  139-140. 
London  Journal,  The,  275. 
Lord  Chamberlain,  the,  77,  78,  84, 

100,  119,  140. 
Lotteries,  54  and   n.,   65,   56,   58, 

60n.,  61  and  n. 
Lounsbury,  T.  E.  (quoted),  107n., 

145,  182,  229n. 
Love  for  Love,  78. 
Lover's    Degree    of    Comparison, 

The,  19. 
Luttrell,  Narcissus,  9n. 

McCrady's  Hist,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, etc.,  54n.,  57n,  59n. 

McSwiney,  Owen,  78,  86,  94. 

Macklin,  Charles,  131, 

Macpherson's  Annals  of  Com- 
merce (quoted),  28n.,  55,  56, 
59n.,  65n. 

Maggot,  The,  119. 

Makower,  S.  V.,  182n. 

Mallet,  David,  63,  99,  114  and  n., 
116,  149,  153,  155,  169,  170,  173- 
177,  185,  189,  192,  193,  194n., 
196,  197,  198,  206n.,  236,  247- 
250,  252,  255,  274. 


Mandeville,  Bernard,  32n. 
Marlborough,  Duchess  of,  247-248. 
Marlborough,  Duke  of,  247  and  n. 
Mars  and  Venus,  110. 
"Menander"     (correspondent    in 

Pasquin),  108-109. 
Mercator,  The,  155. 
Mercurius  Politicus,  25n. 
Merit  of  Assassination,  The,  147n., 

284. 
Merope     (Hill's),     149-151,     247, 

252,  274,  285. 

(Jeffreys'),  149n. 

(Voltaire's),  149,  150. 

Military      Memoirs      of      Captain 

George  Carleton,  12n. 
Millar  (publisher),  252. 
Mills   (actor),  115. 
Milton,  John,  240. 
Mira.    See  "Clio." 
Miranda.     See  Hill,  Mrs. 
Mississippi  Bubble,  28. 
Mist's  Weekly  Journ<il,  69,  214. 
Mitchell,  Joseph,  97,  98,  99,  153, 

169,   170-173,  189. 
Montagu,  Lady  Mary  Wortley,  9n., 

159,  267n. 
Montague,  Duke  of,  101-104. 
Montgomery,  Sir  Robert,  50-51,  52, 

53,  54,  55,  56-58. 
Morel,    L.,    his    Thomson    quoted, 

143n.,  192n.,  198. 
Morris,  Edmund,  26,  40n.,  83. 
Murray,  David,  his  Yorlc  Buildings 

Co.  quoted,  61n.,  65  and  n.,  66, 

67,  70,  72. 

Necromancer,     or    Hist,     of    Dr. 

Faustus,  The,  111. 
Newcastle,  Duke  of,  100. 
New  Clarissa,  The,  265. 


INDEX 


297 


Nicholson,  Watson,  his  Struggle 
for  a  Free  Stage  quoted,  101, 
125,  140. 

Nicolini,  88. 

NigM  Thoughts,  The,  164n. 

Northern  Star,  The,  201-206,  208, 
280. 

Oldfield,  Anne,  76,  104,  113,  178. 
Onslow,    Arthur,    Speaker    of    the 

House  of  Commons,  226,  238. 
Opera,  87-88,  89,  92-93,  183n. 
Orfeo,  93. 

Orpheus  and  Eurydice,  110. 
Othello,  132n.,  144,  145,  146. 
Ottoman  Empire,  The,  4,  5  and  n., 

6,  7n.,  8,  10,  21-26,  279. 
Otway,  Thomas,  82,  95,  106n. 
Oxford  Hist,   of  Music,   The,   88, 

89,  93n. 

Paget,  Lord,  4,  9,  23. 
Pamela,  240,  254-260,  270. 
Pantomime,  110-113,  133-134,  138. 
Parnell,  Col.  Arthur,  12n. 
Pasquin   (Fielding's  play),  108n., 

139. 
Pasquin  (the  periodical),  108,  112. 
Pastoral,  286-287. 
Patents    (stage),  77,  79,  95,  100, 

118-119,  121,  122,  137,  140-141. 
Paul,    H.    G.,    his    John    Dennis 

quoted,  164,  165. 
Pepys,  Samuel,  115n. 
Peter  the  Great,  201,  202,  203,  205, 

206,  207. 
Peterborough,  Earl  of,  11-12,  14 

and  n.,  15,  22,  26,  80,  116. 
Phillips,  Ambrose,  156. 
Picture  of  Love,  The,  160,  185. 
Pinkethman  (actor),  84  and  n. 
Pirro  e  Demetrio,  87. 


Plain  Dealer,  The,  started,  156; 
editors,  156-157;  contents  and 
characteristics,  157-161 ;  suc- 
cess, 161;  Young's  possible  con- 
tributions, 161-164;  appeals  in 
behalf  of  Dennis,  166-167; 
praise  of  Mitchell,  172;  of  Mal- 
let, 174-176;  of  Thomson,  192; 
champions  Savage,  179-182 ; 
quoted,  3,  50n.,  93,  112-113,  154, 
159,  160,  161,  165,  170,  207; 
bib.,  282-283. 

Plaistow,  47-48,  72,  114,  241-242, 
243,  244,  270. 

Piatt,  Sir  Hugh,  45  and  n. 

Poetical  Eegister,  179,  188. 

Pope,  Alexander,  his  opinion  of 
Hill's  works,  118,  204,  219,  223, 
227,  235;  relations  with  Dennis, 
168;  attacked  by  HiU,  203-204; 
accepts  Hill's  apology,  204-205; 
friendly  relations  with  Hill,  206- 
207,  221,  226-227;  ridicules. 
Hill  in  the  Bathos,  208;  the 
Dunciad  episode,  208-220;  satir- 
ized by  Hill  in  the  Caveat,  209- 
211;  his  equivocation,  212,  216, 
218,  222,  231;  appeals  to  Hill  to 
defend  him,  222-224;  concern 
for  his  reputation  for  honesty, 
213,  218,  223,  233 ;  views  of  the 
sublime,  225-226;  connection 
with  the  Grub  Street-Prompter 
controversy,  228-232 ;  renewal  of 
intercourse  with  Hill,  232-235; 
his  Essay  on  Man  revised  by 
Hill,  237-238;  mentioned,  15, 
16,  23n.,  116,  153,  166,  276,  277. 

Popple,  WilUam,  48-49,  71n.,  122, 
124n.,  185,  228,  231,  232. 

Post  Boy,  The,  56n.,  155n. 


298 


INDEX 


Potter   (the  carpenter),  101-104. 

Powell  (actor),  84,  85. 

Present  State  of  Wit,  The,  18. 

Prince  of  Wales,  Frederick,  137, 
145,  177n.,  199,  274. 

Prior,  Matthew,  153. 

Progress  of  Wit,  The,  209-211, 
215,  217,  218,  283. 

Prompter,  The,  started,  122;  con- 
tributors, 122  and  n. ;  purpose, 
123;  range  of  subjects,  123-124; 
value  of,  124-125,  277;  comment 
on  plays,  124-125;  criticism  of 
actors,  126-130;  theory  of  the 
art  of  acting,  130-131;  criti- 
cism of  audiences,  132;  con- 
demnation of  pantomime,  133- 
134;  criticism  of  theatrical 
managers,  135-136,  138-139 ; 
views  upon  stage  regulation, 
137-139;  comments  on  Voltaire, 
144,  146;  controversy  with  the 
Gruh  Street  Journal,  228-232; 
mentioned,  168n.,  199,  251n., 
275,  283. 

Proposal  for  the  Better  Regula- 
tion of  the  Stage,  121n. 

Proprietors  (of  South  Carolina), 
50,  53,  57  and  n.,  58  and  n.,  62n. 

Purcell,  Henry,  87. 

Quin,  James,  126,  131. 

Eacine,  J.,  151. 

Ealph,  James,  122n.,  132,  135n. 

Bambler,  The,  156. 

Eamsay,   Allan,   169   and  n.,   173, 

177. 
Beligion  of  Eeason,  Th",  247,  252 

and  n.,  284. 
Seview,  The,  155. 


Eich,  Christopher,  77,  78,  79  and 
n.,  83,  85,  86,  95,  100. 

Eich,  John,  86n.,  95,  101,  110-113, 
131,  134n.,  135-136,  138,  141, 
167. 

Eichardson,  Samuel,  Hill's  letters 
to  quoted,  2,  25,  47,  73,  74,  164n., 
200,  223,  225-226,  231,  249,  251; 
his  kindness  to  the  Hill  family, 
48,  250-252,  273;  defended  by 
Hill,  238;  his  nervous  disorders, 
243-244,  257^n.;  his  criticism 
of  Hill 's  works,  253 ;  his  Pamela 
praised  by  the  Hills,  254-260; 
his  difficulties  with  Clarissa  Har- 
loxve,  260-269;  his  jealousy  of 
Fielding,  260-273. 

Binaldo,  87,  88  and  n.,  89-92,  279. 

Boman  Eevenge,  The,  148  and  n., 
220,  235,  286. 

Bosamond,  87. 

Eossi,  Giacomo,  87,  89,  92. 

Eowe,  N.,  95,  153. 

Eussel  (the  "Bavius  of  Grub 
Street"),  229n. 

Eycaut,  Sir  Paul,  his  Present  State 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  22. 

Sacheverell,  Henry,  82. 
St.  James's  Journal,  60n. 
Saintsbury,  G.  E.,  4n. 
Sansome,  Mrs.    See  * '  Clio. ' ' 
Sargeaunt,    John,    his    Annals    of 

Westminster  School,  2n.,  3. 
Savage,  Bichard,  16,  63,  155,  157, 

166n.,    177-184,    185,    187,    188, 

189n.,  191,  217,  276,  277. 
Savage's  Miscellany,  17,  122,  154, 

181,  185. 
Seasonable  Examination,  A,  137. 
Sewell,  Dr.  George,  205n. 


INDEX 


299 


Shadwell,  Charles,  95. 
Shakespeare,  William,  82,  95,  96, 

98,  105-109,  112,  128,  147,  151, 

175,  187,  197,  207,  233. 
Shelley,  P.  B.,  201. 
Skipwith,  Sir  Thomas,  78. 
Sloane,  Sir  Hans,  241. 
Smith,  Marshall,  17,  26,  185. 
Snake  in  the  Grass,  The,  135ii. 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of 

Learning,  73n. 
South  Sea  Bubble,  28,  29,  56,  59, 

61,  98,  154,  155,  178,  275. 
Southerne  (the  dramatist),  95. 
Southey,  Eobert,  211n. 
Spectator,  The,  88n.,  92,  156,  157, 

158. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  3. 
Squire   Brainless,   or    Triclc   upon 

TricTc,  82. 
Stebbing,    William,    his    Peter'bor- 

ough  quoted,  12,  14n.,  15n. 
Steele,  Sir  Eichard,  42n.,  60n.,  74, 

80n.,    95,    100,    119,    141,    155, 

168,  183,  188. 
Stephens,  William,  67n.,  69. 
Swift,    Jonathan,    153,    155,    208, 

216. 

Tasso,  90  and  n.,  92. 

Tate,  Nahum,  20-21,  107. 

Tatler,  The,  79,  84n.,  85,  88n.,  155. 

Tears  of  the  Muses,  The,  284. 

Theatre,  The,  100. 

Theobald,  Lewis,  155,  233. 

Thomas,  W.,  his  Young  quoted, 
157,  162,  163. 

Thomas,  W.  Moy,  181,  182. 

Thomson,  James,  63n.,  64n.,  73n., 
114.  136,  140,  152,  153,  155, 
165n.,  166n.,  169,  170,  172  and 


n.,  173,  184  and  n.,  185,  188n., 

189,  192-200,  206n.,  221n.,  227, 

232,  236,  268,  276,  277. 
Thomyris,  87. 
Thurmond,  111. 
Tindal,    Matthew,    228,    230,    232, 

252. 
Tom  Jones,  111,  125,  133,  269-273. 
Transport,  The,  19. 
Treatise  on  the  Bathos,  167n.,  208, 

233. 
Trent,  W.  P.,  12n.,  25n. 
True  Briton,  The,  108,  109n. 
Two  Harlequins,  The,  110. 
Tyrconnel,  Lord,  116,  183,  225. 

Unities,  the,  80,  96,  106n.,  117. 

A^anbrugh,  Sir  John,  78,  95. 
Verstegan's  Antiquities,  115. 
Victor,    Benjamin,    71n.,    119-121, 

172,  189,  190,  193. 
Voltaire,    76,    141,    143-151,    227, 

275. 

Walking  Statue,  The,  80,  82,  279. 
Walpole,  Sir  Eobert,  100,  139  and 

n.,  153,  172,  177n. 
Walpole,  Lady,  227n. 
Warton,     Joseph      (quoted),     15, 

208n. 
Weaver,  John,  110. 
Wedgwood,  Josiah,  44. 
Weekly  Journal,  The,  112. 
Weekly  Miscellany,  The,  226. 
Weekly  Eegister,  The,  132-133. 
Wentworth,  Sir  William,  10-11,  22. 
Westminster  School,  2. 
Whig  Examiner,  The,  155. 
Wilks,  Eobert,  86,  94,  95,  96,  113, 

114-116,  118,  127-128,  183. 


300 


INDEX 


William  and  Margaret,  174-177. 
Winter,  172,  193,  195,  196. 
WoUaston,    Dr.,    his    Beligion    of 

Nature  Delineated,  163n. 
Woman's  Eights,  124,  160  and  n. 
Wycherley,  William,  95. 
Wyndham,  Sir  William,  116. 

York   Buildings   Company,   59-66, 
99-72. 


YorJc  Buildings  Dragon,  The,  62n. 
YorJcshire  Tragedy,  The,  98. 
Young,     Edward,     157,     161-164, 
244n.,  263. 


Zaire,  141. 

Zara,  141-145,  198,  199,  228  and 
n.,  283. 


VITA 

Dorothy  Brewster  was  born  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  on 
September  8,  1883.  She  received  her  early  education  in 
the  schools  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York  City.  Entering 
Barnard  College,  Columbia  University,  in  the  autumn  of 
1902,  she  proceeded  to  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1906,  and  to 
that  of  A.M.  in  1907.  From  1908  to  1911,  she  taught  in 
the  Department  of  English  in  Barnard  College  as  Assist- 
ant ;  from  1911  to  1912,  she  was  a  Special  Fellow  in  English 
at  Columbia  University.  During  the  years  of  her  graduate 
study  under  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  in  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, she  pursued  courses  in  English  and  Comparative 
Literature  under  Professors  W.  P.  Trent,  A.  H.  Thorndike, 
W.  W.  Lawrence,  H.  M.  Ayres,  J.  B.  Fletcher,  V.  C.  Gilder- 
sleeve,  and  J.  W.  Cunliffe,  and  Professor  Otto  Jespersen  of 
the  University  of  Copenhagen ;  and  in  History  under  Pro- 
fessor J.  H.  Robinson. 


301 


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